Mitch Daniels will sign bill to defund Planned Parenthood
"I supported this bill from the outset, and the recent addition of language guarding against the spending of tax dollars to support abortions creates no reason to alter my position," he said in a statement.
Daniels' decision was closely watched since he is considering a presidential run. His earlier call for a "truce" on social issues had garnered the ire of social conservatives, and the bill was seen as a test of where he stood on such issues. Daniels has cast himself as focused primarily on fiscal issues.
Had Daniels vetoed the bill, which will make Indiana the first state to strip Medicaid funding for the network of reproductive health clinics, it would likely have hardened opposition to Daniels among social conservatives, who make up a significant portion of the GOP primary electorate in the key early voting states of Iowa and South Carolina. Signing the bill may help Daniels alleviate some of the reservations to his candidacy among that group if he decides to run.
"Any organization affected by this provision can resume receiving taxpayer dollars immediately by ceasing or separating its operations that perform abortions," Daniels said in his statement.
On Thursday, Rick Santorum, a potential Daniels rival in the GOP presidential primary, called on the governor to sign the bill, saying of Planned Parenthood, "That's an organization that has a very sordid history and founding and one that I still think focuses in on activities that a lot of people have moral objections to." During the budget fight earlier this year that almost led to a government shutdown, Republicans tried and failed to eliminate federal funding for Planned Parentood, which is legally barred from using federal money to perform abortions.
The Indiana bill will eliminate $2 million in federal funding that Planned Parenthood receives, funneled through the state (the legislature has no control over an additional $1 million Planned Parenthood in Indiana receives from the federal government). About $1.3 million of that money comes from Medicaid funds allocated for family planning. It will also ban abortions after 20 weeks.
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