Welcome to week 10 of Inside Your Legislative Body. Just weeks after the Senate unveiled their anti-women’s health budget earlier this month, the NC House introduced their budget, which will make it even harder for the women of North Carolina to receive expert medical care.
State Budget Update
Earlier this month, the Senate budget saw a $100,000 increase in funding to Crisis Pregnancy Centers, or CPCs, from the previous year. CPCs pose as legitimate “health centers” in order to intentionally mislead women with false, medically inaccurate information intended to dissuade a woman from considering the option of safe and legal abortion as a range of reproductive health care services.
The House budget has gone even further and proposed a 1 million dollar increase in funding to CPCs in North Carolina.
This is a big deal.
According to in-depth research conducted by our partners at NARAL-NC, 94 percent of CPCs in North Carolina had no medical professionals on staff, but only 20 percent disclosed that they are not medical facilities. CPCs have no government oversight and no accountability for taxpayer funding. While they pose as legitimate “health centers” they are not held to any medical compliance standards that actual health care providers abide by each day, including Planned Parenthood.
What makes this million dollar increase even more egregious is what the money is allocated towards: The House budget specifically includes funding for CPCs to purchase medical equipment, which could include things such as ultrasound machines, simply to further their appearance of posing as a legitimate health center.
I want to be clear: what we are seeing in the House budget is over a million dollars for CPCs — unregulated organizations that pose as health centers — to purchase and use advanced medical equipment in order to manipulate and further lie to the women of this state.
Standing against this abhorrent use of North Carolinians’ taxes, Representative Deb Butler (D- New Hanover), introduced an amendment today redirecting the 1 million dollar increase away from CPCs and towards state-operated alcohol and drug abuse centers. This amendment would ensure that our tax dollars are going to organizations that help North Carolinians who are truly in crisis and in need of real services. In a state where overdoses now cause more deaths than car crashes or guns, this funding is badly needed and should be used to help people, not lie to them.
Upcoming Events
This week, while North Carolina lawmakers are home for the Memorial Day Congressional recess, we’ve planned “Resistance Recess” events throughout the state for you to show up in your Planned Parenthood pink and let legislators know you support access to affordable and reliable health care.
Below are a few events happening across the state in the next week. We have many more events going on during this Resistance Rally, so feel free to reach out to the organizer in each of these towns for more information!
- THE TRIANGLE: Come together with progressive partners this Saturday, June 3, for Resistance Con from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the Durham Convention Center. Find PPSAT staff on the panel, “Let’s Talk About Sex with Planned Parenthood.” For more information please contact hoffpauir@ppsat.org.
- ASHEVILLE: Rally with us and our progressive partners WNCAP this Saturday, June 3, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in Asheville to resist the AHCA. Meet us at the Vance monument! If you have any questions please contact wyatt@ppsat.org.
- CHARLOTTE: Meet us at Independence Library in Charlotte for a film screening of “No Más Bebés” this Saturday, June 3, with our progressive partners RAIZ. Contact Taylor at pinckney@ppsat.org for any questions.