The House wants to block state-directed funding from going to groups that perform abortions, including their main target: Planned Parenthood.
The $1.3 million in state money that goes to Planned Parenthood is for health education, infant mortality reduction and other programs House Republicans say that money should go to pro-life organizations that provide similar aid instead.
Democrats, such as Representative Nickie Antonio of Lakewood, argued on the House floor that lawmakers were overstepping their authority.
“This is about ideological opposition to a woman’s right to choose -- let’s call it what it is. By people who think -- legislators who think they have a right to make a woman’s most personal, sensitive health care decision for them instead," said Antonio.
The bill now goes to the Senate, which already sent their own defunding Planned Parenthood bill to the House.
Andy Chow at the Ohio Public Radio Statehouse News Bureau.
