New data on state funding for anti-abortion centers shows that Ohio has provided more than $22 million to groups in the state since the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs decision that struck down national abortion law.
Since 2013, the state has poured more than $35.5 million into anti-abortion funding, according to Equity Forward’s latest study of statewide funding for centers known as “crisis pregnancy centers,” which are often faith-based facilities that offer services such as ultrasounds and pregnancy tests but also reportedly spread outdated or debunked information about pregnancy.
The organization examined 23 states that provided public funds to anti-abortion centers from 1995 – the year in which it said there was “the first verifiable case of funding” – through July 23 of this year.
“AACs use public funds to fund tactics and programs that not only aim to stall, deceive, and discourage those seeking abortion, but also create an unnecessary barrier to pregnant people seeking other medical care and supportive services,” the report said.
The analysis found that more than $489 million has been provided to anti-abortion centers in 22 states since the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in the Dobbs case in 2022.
Ohio has transferred $35,583,939 to facilities in the state, with that amount including public funds for “alternative to abortion programs,” funds from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program and “other miscellaneous sources,” the study said. Specifically, $17.8 million from the TANF program has gone to the centers since 2013, according to Equity Forward. The study reported a total of nearly $200 million in TANF funds used for anti-abortion centers in nine states.
TANF is a program designed to “help low-income families with children achieve economic independence,” according to the US Department of HealthHowever, states have discretion in how they use federal funds and contribute to the fund.
As part of the most recent state budget and TANF grant funding, Governor Mike DeWine’s Office of Faith-Based Community Initiatives received $13.5 million in TANF Block Grant funds for fiscal year 2024. According to the office’s website, TANF’s goals include preventing or reducing “the incidence of pregnancy outside of marriage,” promoting the “formation and maintenance of two-parent families,” and ending “needy parents’ dependence on public benefits by promoting career preparation, work, and marriage.”
The state also has a Parenting and pregnancy program by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, for which $14 million was allocated in the last budget, $7 million per fiscal year, according to Breakdown of the state budget by the Legislative Service Commission.
Organizations receiving PPP funds, according to the state, must “promote births rather than abortions through counseling and other services, including parenting and adoption assistance.” These organizations are specifically prohibited from “engaging in or being associated with pro-abortion activities, including providing abortion counseling or referrals to abortion clinics, performing abortion-related medical procedures, or engaging in pro-abortion advertising.”
The state still funds facilities in this way, even though a ballot initiative last year, approved by 57% of voters, added reproductive rights, including abortion, to the Constitution. A spokesman for DeWine was asked several times whether the language in the PPP would be changed to reflect the amendment’s wording, but he has not yet responded.
Ohio’s legislation last year aims to encourage support for anti-abortion groups by possible tax creditsas another Republican bill attempts to prevent government funds from going to abortion-related services.
It is unclear whether these bills will succeed in the General Assembly session, which ends in December, but even if they do not come to a vote or pass, they could be reintroduced next year.
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