The elected county commissioners in New Hanover County, N.C. are sick and tired of using taxpayer funds to assist women who can’t keep their legs closed. And so on Monday they voted to reject a state grant designed to cover family-planning services.
The Wilmington, N.C. Star-News reports the commission in the coastal county has “unanimously voted to turn down a state family planning grant that would cover contraceptive supplies along with other medical services related to family planning.”
The commissioners didn’t think it was right to use taxpayer money to pay for women who want to have sex for non-procreative purposes.
From the Star-News:
Chairman Ted Davis said he thought it was a sad day when “taxpayers are asked to pay money for contraceptives” for women having sex without planning responsibly.
“If these young women are being responsible and didn’t have the sex to begin with, we wouldn’t have this problem to begin with,” Davis said.
The New Hanover County decision comes amid a growing debate about contraception and family planning in North Carolina and nationally. Last year, North Carolina’s Republican-led legislature became one of a handful to try and ban state funding for Planned Parenthood.
Read the rest of the New Hanover story here.
Update: WECT-TV reports one of the commissioners who voted to reject the funds, Democrat Jonathan Barfield, expressed his regret on Facebook hours after the commission meeting.
“I’m getting a good lesson from my wife right this minute on the error of my vote,” he reportedly wrote.
“I just interviewed with WECT as I cited the error of my vote. I don’t have the right to choose for any woman,” Barfield went on, according to the station. “If you watch the tape of the meeting you’ll get a better sense of the discussion. Bottom line we should have accepted the money.”
The Star-News reported Barfield referred to himself as “one of those abstinence guys” when casting his vote with the rest of the council to reject the state funds Monday.
