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Last updated on Wednesday, April 20, 2011
(STATEHOUSE) - The Indiana Senate has passed the bill that would pull the plug on state funding and contracts for Planned Parenthood of Indiana by a vote of 35-13 Tuesday.
President Betty Cockrum says about a fifth of the organization's $15-million budget comes from state funding.
Cockrum says the funding cutoff could jeopardize pap smears, birth control, and other basic health care for Planned Parenthood's clients, though she says she doesn't know whether the organization's clinics would turn people away.
The bill also moves back the latest date to get an abortion from 24 weeks to 20, the point at which sponsors say the fetus can feel pain.
And the proposal adds to the list of items doctors must inform patients of in advance, including the research on fetal pain, the risks of infection and infertility, and a declaration that life begins at conception.
54 house members of both parties co-sponsored the bill without the defunding language.
It passed the house 72-23.
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