Gov. Robert Bentley announced today he was terminating an agreement between the Alabama Medicaid Agency and Planned Parenthood.
Bentley's office sent out copies of the termination letter to Planned Parenthood Southeast in Atlanta.
The letter does not say what services Planned Parenthood provides for the Medicaid Agency. That information was not immediately available.
The governor's office released a statement from the governor.
"The deplorable practices at Planned Parenthood have been exposed to Americans, and I have decided to stop any association with the organization in Alabama," Bentley said.
"As a doctor and Alabama's governor, the issue of human life, from conception to birth and beyond, is extremely important. I respect human life and do not want Alabama to be associated with an organization that does not."
The letter says that the Alabama Medicaid Agency is exercising its ability to terminate its provider contract with Planned Parenthood with a 15-day notice.
The letter says that if Planned Parenthood opposes the decision it has 60 days to apply for a fair hearing.
That 15-day notice means that Alabama will actually cut off their agreement before Louisiana does, as it has a 30-day cutoff agreement. Go figure.
Anyhow, it's not like Louisiana and Alabama have high teen pregnancy rates or anything. Oh wait, they do: Alabama is just ahead of Kentucky at #15, and Louisiana is #5, so naturally cutting off funding for poor women from affordable contraception services will totally improve that ranking.
For comparison, Louisiana has the same teen pregnancy rate as Costa Rica and Jamaica with 69 pregnancies per 1,000 teens and at 62 per 1,000, Alabama has the same rate as our happy neighbors to the south, Mexico.
So sure, this seems like a good way to reduce the instance of possibly unwanted pregnancies that might end in abortion or something.
Good job!
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