Washington state cuts abortion funding by $8.5M, pending governor’s approval

The Washington state Legislature plans to cut funding for a pro-abortion program by 55% in the upcoming biennium budget.

The House and Senate approved the plan on Sunday, the last day of the legislative session. It includes an $8.5 million cut to the Abortion Access Project, shrinking it from $16 million to $7.5 million, KOMO News reports. The program provides grants to the liberal state’s abortion providers, helping them stay in business.

Jennifer M. Allen, CEO of Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates, accused the Democrat-controlled Legislature of betraying the pro-abortion cause.

“By moving forward with an $8.5 million cut to the Abortion Access Project – the biggest in our state’s history – the Legislature is turning its back on the patients, providers, and communities who count on Washington as a leader on access to abortion care. This decision will strain our health care system, deepen inequities, and risk lives,” she said in a statement on social media.

Gov. Bob Ferguson, a Democrat who supports abortion, hasn’t weighed in on the matter. He has 20 days to decide whether to sign or veto the bill or veto portions of it. If he does not act in that time, it automatically becomes law.

Supporters of the cut celebrated online, saying tax dollars shouldn’t fund abortion.

“In the 1970s, every single woman that got an abortion had to pay for themselves,” one X user posted. “I am not an advocate of my taxpayer dollars going to abortions.”

“Killing babies is not health care,” another wrote. 

Although Washington is cutting abortion funding, the state’s Medicaid program still covers elective abortions, one of 20 states to do so, according to KFF News. 

Abortion has been broadly legal in Washington since 1970, when voters legalized it via referendum, three years before the now-overturned Roe v. Wade permitted it nationwide. 

Then, in 1991, Washington voted 50.1% to 49.9% to approve a ballot question expanding legal abortion from four months to the point of fetal viability, which is around 24 weeks. This remains the state’s gestational limit for abortion today.