ICYMI: Councilors Challenge Planned Parenthood Contract

by: William Tucker

Mon Oct 03, 2011 at 15:42:14 PM EDT

Three Executive Councilors have taken legal action to stop access to preventive care at Planned Parenthood centers in New Hampshire. Councilors David Wheeler, Dan St. Hilaire and Ray Wieczorek joined forces with the Arizona-based Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) in an attempt to void a federal grant recently awarded to Planned Parenthood for family planning services.

The Alliance Defense Fund is a conservative Christian legal organization founded by high-profile Religious Right leaders including D. James Kennedy and James Dobson. The ADF works to actively promote "marriage protection," expose the "homosexual agenda" and fight the supposed "war on Christmas."

The federal government had stepped in and awarded the grant after the Executive Council left 16,000 New Hampshire residents without access to vital health care services including cervical cancer screenings, breast exams and treatment for sexually transmitted infections.

In the legal filing, the councilors claim the federal grant is "improper, irregular, unnecessary, in contravention of the authority of the Executive Council and its duly elected members, and in disregard for the sovereignty of the State of New Hampshire.” St. Hilaire acknowledged that he filed the petition at the behest of the Alliance Defense Fund.

St. Hilaire said he was contacted by ADF about signing the letter. “The legal counsel contacted us and said they wanted to file a letter and asked us to sign off on it,” which he did, he said.