Virginia governor vetoes bill restricting Planned Parenthood's funding

Terry McAuliffe, the governor of Virginia, vetoed the bill that would restrict state funding for Planned Parenthood.

"The fact is that Virginians, and particularly low-income Virginians, need more access to health care, not less," McAuliffe said in a statement, quoted by Christian News Network.

Planned Parenthood is a provider of reproductive health care. This includes preventive health care to avoid unintended pregnancies and it also conducts abortions. House Bill 1090, if it became law, would have restricted the funds for such non-hospital health care providers that perform the procedure.

According to the organization's website, it has more than 650 health care centers in the country operated by 59 affiliates. The Christian Science Monitor says that 3 percent of its services in 2015 were abortions.

"Without this service, we could see an increase in STDs, more complications with pregnancies and an increase in health issues among newborns," said McAuliffe.

Some states have reportedly ceased its funding after a video about its alleged practices was released. According to the report, the video, taken in secret by an anti-abortion group, shows some of the provider's officials discussing about selling the fetal tissue of aborted infants.

Planned Parenthood filed a complaint on March 24 against the people behind what it calls a smear campaign.

"They also illegally taped private professional conversations of doctors and other medical providers and spliced together shards of long conversations to create short videos in order to spread false claims that Planned Parenthood 'sells' or profits from women's decisions to donate fetal tissue for medical research," an article in its website says. "In fact, Planned Parenthood has never sold fetal tissue or facilitated fetal tissue donation in order to make a profit."