The Ohio Senate has passed a bill that defunds Planned Parenthood and allocates millions of dollars to help mothers and children in crisis pregnancies. The bill provides an excellent model that other anti-abortion states should follow to counter the Left’s false narrative on abortion: that pro-lifers stop caring about babies once they're born.

The bill, H.B. 166, eliminates the $1.5 million in public funding Planned Parenthood receives in Ohio and replaces it with $5 million in public funding for crisis pregnancy centers. These centers usually offer more “choices” than Planned Parenthood, which offers abortion and little else for pregnant women. These other clinics offer many additional services, such as ultrasounds, free prenatal and postnatal care, diapers, toys, child care, parenting classes, job training, and post-abortive care and counseling.

Conservatives oppose big government spending, but they recognized in this situation that government spending is necessary to accomplish a higher goal, to preserve and protect human life.

Additionally, Ohio is completely destroying the Left’s false charge that abortion opponents have “fetal tunnel vision” and only care about children so long as they're unborn. This plan cares for children both before and after birth, and it cares for pregnant mothers too, non-judgmentally helping even those who might have made unwise decisions that led to their pregnancy.

If the pro-life movement is going to grow, this is the way. It must be a movement of love, compassion, and mercy. We can promote personal responsibility and discourage sex out of wedlock while still meeting people where they are and addressing the scary reality facing many pregnant women.

By building on its heartbeat bill with $5 million for crisis pregnancy centers, Ohio is showing exactly what a comprehensive pro-life policy plan should look like.