By AP/KWMU
Jefferson City, MO – Missouri Governor Bob Holden criticizes a legislative move to eliminate funding for Missouri's family planning services.
The funding has been controversial in previous years. And the Legislature's anti-abortion majority has sought to prohibit part of the money from going to Planned Parenthood, which also offers abortions.
House Budget Chairman Carl Bearden has eliminated state family planning grants from the next year's proposed budget. He cites the state's continued budget troubles.
But Holden says eliminating the money would deny services to more than 33,000 uninsured women.
Among other things the money pays for gynecological exams, birth control services, cancer screenings and tests for sexually transmitted diseases.