When Jeb
alluded to the "many extraordinarily fine organizations, community health organizations that exist" as an alternative to funding Planned Parenthood, he was referring to abstinence-only organizations like the ones
he funded as governor of Florida. How do we know? Because he said so in a subsequent tweet:
Laura Bassett reports on just where those funds were redirected to.
Bush did not redirect Planned Parenthood money into community health centers providing birth control, Pap tests and other family planning services as he suggested. He diverted money to abstinence-only education and spent millions on crisis pregnancy centers, which are non-medical, religiously motivated organizations dedicated to convincing women not to have abortions. He also invested $47 million into a breast and cervical cancer early detection program and created "fight breast cancer" license plates, the proceeds of which went to breast cancer research.
How did that affect Planned Parenthood services in the state? Here's an excerpt from a January 2003
St. Petersburg Times article:
Planned Parenthood of Southwest and Central Florida lost $124,000 last year from its family planning division. Bush diverted the funds to abstinence-only educational programs. Now teens who use Planned Parenthood have a $15 co-pay and must pay $7 for birth control. "We do charge the teens now," said LaWanda Walker, public affairs coordinator for Planned Parenthood of Southwest and Central Florida. "That we really, really hate. You need to be able to have services and make it convenient."