Ben has danced all around the issue of federal funding for abortion, but this legislative session his message was clear:
Your taxpayer dollars SHOULD be used to fund abortion.
Ben Chandler voted against H.R. 3: "No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act" on May 4, 2011. H.R. 3 permanently bans use of federal dollars to pay for abortion.
On Feb. 18, Ben also voted to federally fund Planned Parenthood.
In 2009, Planned Parenthood performed 324,008 abortions. Ben voted to force you to provide 1/3 of their funding, by voting "No" on the Mike Pence amendment to Continuing Appropriations Bill H. R. 1, which stated that no federal funds should be given to PP.
In March 2011, after Planned Parenthood claimed that ending federal funding would deprive women of basic healthcare, like mammograms, calls were made to 30 clinics in 27 states. None of these clinics perform mammograms. Click here for details.
Other Abortion Votes
11/7/2009 Ben voted for the Stupak Amendment to the Obamacare bill. This amendment prohibited funding of abortion-related services with Obamacare dollars. General consensus was that Obamacare would not have passed without this amendment, which appeased pro-life Democrats. This vote was a win-win for Chandler. He got to polish his "no tax money for abortion" image, while helping to move Obamacare closer to passage.
In 2005, Chandler voted to allow privately funded abortions on military bases overseas. This measure failed.
Ben Chandler's complete record on abortion issues can be found here.