NANCY HICKS / Lincoln Journal Star | Posted: Wednesday, March 15, 2006 6:00 pm
After two days of tiptoeing around the issue, Sen. Mike Foley acknowledged Thursday that his pro-life beliefs and his disgust with Planned Parenthood are driving his efforts to redistribute funding for women’s health services.
“I am pro-life to the core, with no apologies,” said Foley, who said he is working to make sure Planned Parenthood doesn’t get state funding.
“They are to abortion what McDonald is to cheeseburgers,” the Lincoln senator said. “They do more than anyone else.
“And that’s what this is about.”
Foley’s announcement on the floor of the Legislature came after a letter he sent to some supporters last week became public.
In the letter, Foley said his budget amendment would “at least begin to cut into the disbursement of our tax dollars to Planned Parenthood.”
And he asked people to pray that the amendment would prevail.
The issue goes beyond limiting funding to Planned Parenthood, Foley also acknowledged Thursday. He said he also doesn’t want state tax dollars going to other family planning clinics that offer abortion referral and information, even if they don’t provide abortions.
A number of senators were incensed by what they called Foley’s duplicity: his insistence this week that his primary concern was to broaden the number of clinics that could get the money and provide better distribution of services across the state.
Honesty and integrity is all that senators really have with each other, Sen. Don Pederson of North Platte said during two hours of debate on the issue Thursday.
“I believe we were deliberately deceived,” he said.
“I’m disappointed,” said Lincoln Sen. DiAnna Schimek. “I don’t think from the comments that one could extrapolate that he was trying to destroy funding for the services already there,” she said.
“I’m afraid I was deceived, and I feel betrayed,” said Sen. Joel Johnson of Kearney, who quoted from the Bible, “Thou shalt not bear false witness.” And he repeated the common saying, “Fool me once, it’s your fault. Fool me twice, it’s mine.”
“There won’t be a second time,” Johnson said.
Several senators also said they intend to revisit the funding distribution language during second-round debate.
But Foley said senators should not have been surprised by his motives, since he had been open about his dislike of family planning clinics during two public hearings held by legislative committees.
Sen. Pam Brown of Omaha said the abortion debate detracts from the real issue: family planning. It’s about whether women should have the opportunity to get information so they don’t get pregnant and don’t have to consider an abortion, she said.
In an interview after the debate, Foley said he has not made an issue about contraception or the fact state funds go to clinics that provide information about contraception and give prescriptions for birth control.
But he did not directly answer a question about whether he believes tax dollars should not go to clinics that provide birth control and birth control information.
“I have not said that,” he said.
Reach Nancy Hicks at 473-7250 or nhicks@journalstar.com.
What you should know
What’s at stake: State tax dollars used to reimburse about 36 family planning clinics across the state, primarily for giving low-income women Pap smears and testing for sexually transmitted disease.
What has happened: A plan proposed by Sen. Mike Foley was added to the main budget bill during the first stage of debate. It requires Health and Human Services to use a different bid system when the agency decides where to spend tax dollars. Senators also increased the funding for next year from about $519,000 to $750,000. The bill still has two more rounds of debate before final passage.
What’s the controversy: The language directing a new bid process will likely cut or eliminate funding for family planning clinics that have traditionally provided the services, including two Planned Parenthood clinics in Lincoln. These clinics also provide a full range of family planning services, including prescriptions for birth control pills and abortion information and referral.