Supporters of the beleaguered “personhood” amendment Wednesday drew attention to their cause by filing a lawsuit against the state and two abortion providers over contracts for cervical and breast cancer screenings.
The Christian Family Alliance of Colorado’s executive director, Mark Hotaling, alleged that the state has given Planned Parenthood and the Boulder Valley Women’s Health Center $18 million in violation of laws prohibiting public subsidization of abortions.
The actual amount those two organizations received is much less. Planned Parenthood of the Rockies, for example, received $610,000 in reimbursements in 2007. The figure doesn’t include federal Medicaid payments.
Department of public health officials say the two organizations — like many clinics and health departments across the state — have received $305 per low-income patient to perform the screenings since the early 1990s as a part of a federally funded program.
