U.S. Rep. Cole wants funding cut off to health center group over abortion claims

WASHINGTON — Rep. Tom Cole said Tuesday that federal grant money should be shut off to a national organization of community health centers for allowing members of an associated group to assist with abortions.

Cole, R-Moore, the chairman of the subcommittee that oversees spending for the Health and Human Services Department, said he was “outraged by the terrible misuse of taxpayer dollars under the direction of the National Association of Community Health Centers.”

The National Association of Community Health Centers has received about $30 million in federal grant money from AmeriCorps in the last five years to administer the community health corps program.

Between 2013 and 2015, the association “allowed a few AmeriCorps members to provide emotional support (doula care) to women during abortion procedures at three New York City clinics” operated by another grantee, according to the inspector general for the Corporation for National and Community Service, the federal parent of AmeriCorps.