The debate over abortion flared Tuesday during a hearing on the proposed budget for the state Health and Human Services System.

HHS officials appeared before the Legislature's Appropriations Committee to discuss their proposed $1.1 billion budget when Sen. Mike Foley of Lincoln questioned why the state gives grant money to organizations that support abortion rights, such as Planned Parenthood. More Session 2005 stories

Foley opposes awarding grant money to Planned Parenthood to provide free pap smears and other testing to low-income women. He said there are plenty of other clinics in most cities that can perform the services.

"It is highly offensive to many Nebraskans that our general fund tax dollars are distributed to Planned Parenthood — the nation's largest provider of abortion services," Foley said. "It further offends many Nebraskans that low-income women in need of a pap smear or chlamydia test are asked to go to a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic in order to be served.

"Virtually any gynecologist in the state could readily perform these services, yet HHS policies do not allow them to qualify for the funds," Foley said.

He noted that Planned Parenthood also receives federal Title X money, which requires that the organization counsel women about the option of having an abortion.

Under Title X of the federal Public Health Service Act authorizing the largest federal-funded family planning program, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services makes grants to states, localities, clinics and hospitals for family planning services.

Aimed primarily at low-income women, the money is granted only if the receiver provides certain services — including informing women about abortion and referring them to a provider upon request.

"So on the one hand, Planned Parenthood is receiving federal Title X money that requires them to conduct abortion counseling and abortion referrals as a condition for receiving the federal dollars," Foley said. "And along comes the state of Nebraska that provided Planned Parenthood with state tobacco settlement dollars for reproductive health services on the condition that none of the state dollars could be used for abortion counseling or abortion referrals."

Sen. Nancy Thompson of Papillion also questioned an HHS request for $600,000 to pay for a one-year program coordinated by Real Alternatives, an organization "committed to assisting women in crisis pregnancies by providing free and compassionate, practical and life-affirming alternatives to abortion."

Dr. Richard Raymond, the state's chief medical officer, said the idea for the program was embraced by former Gov. Mike Johanns more than a year ago, but was not acted on because of budget constraints.

The committee took no action on the HHS budget.

Controversy over the state funding for Planned Parenthood is not new. In 2003, Nebraska's chapter of Planned Parenthood filed a lawsuit in federal court seeking to reinstate a state grant the agency planned to use to fund a teen-outreach program.

The lawsuit came after Attorney General Jon Bruning issued an opinion on the $100,000 grant violated a state law that forbids the use of state money on abortion counseling and referrals or school-based health clinics and research using cell tissue from aborted fetuses.

The agency claims the grant was legal because the teen program did not include information about abortion.

The program would have created alternative clinics where "Teen Nights" would be held. At the events, youths would receive information about birth control, pregnancy tests, pap smears, and tests for detecting sexually transmitted diseases.

Bruning said that HHS erred in awarding the grant to the agency, because Planned Parenthood receives federal grants that require it to offer abortion information on request.

The opinion effectively voided the grant, which would have funded the program in Lincoln and another in Hastings for three years.

The agency alleged that Bruning's interpretation would require Planned Parenthood to forgo its First Amendment right to free speech in order to receive the grant.