Mississippi House votes to block abortion providers from Medicaid

After the state Senate voted in the beginning of March to defund the abortion industry, the Mississippi House has voted for the measure as well.

On Tuesday, lawmakers voted 77-37 for SB 2238, which forbids state Medicaid funds from going to Planned Parenthood. Now it returns to the Senate for a final vote on whether it approves Republican State Representative Joey Hood’s amendment to defund additional entities affiliated with abortion providers, such as Jackson Women’s Health Organization.

“I understand that at least for the females in the House, they may say I have no right to get up and speak to a woman’s issue, but as a former fetus, I believe that I do,” Republican House member Dan Eubanks said in support of SB 2238. “We like to sterilize the word and call it family planning and choice, and God had a lot to say about the people who sacrificed their children to the god of Molech and of the pagan communities throughout the Bible, but we sacrifice our children to the gods of selfishness by the millions in this country.”

The bill would end approximately $1,000 per year of funding for the Mississippi abortion industry, approximately $500 of which went to the state’s sole Planned Parenthood facility in Hattiesburg. That location does not perform abortions on-site, but does make abortion referrals.

Abortion defenders have suggested the relatively small amount of money at stake makes the bill a waste of time, but pro-lifers contend it is still morally necessary for the state government to disassociate itself from the abortion industry. Mississippi has 377 Federally Qualified Health Centers and rural health clinics that provide care for women but are not involved in abortion.