A panel of appointees hand-picked by Gov. Doug Ducey has blocked state employees from making payroll deductions to Planned Parenthood.
Gubernatorial press aide Daniel Scarpinato said Tuesday the move was made after members of the State Employees Charitable Campaign executive policy committee decided the organization was too “controversial” to be on the authorized list of charities available to state workers.
Scarpinato denied that the move has anything to do with the governor’s personal opposition to abortion. But he said Ducey “supports the decision” of the panel.
The move drew an angry reaction from Jodi Liggett, spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood Arizona.
“It does seem clearly political to us,” she said.
Liggett acknowledged the national headlines caused by videos that purport to show Planned Parenthood employees negotiating the sale of fetal tissue.
“It’s a manufactured controversy,” she said. “And, in any event, as the Governor’s Office well knows, we don’t do tissue donation at all in Arizona.”
They policy committee reserves “the right to deny inclusion of charities that they believe do not meet with the program’s mission,” said Linda Stiles, who directs the SECC.
“If a charity is surrounded in a lot of controversy, that could technically mean that could cause workplace interruption.”
The committee also removed the Clinton Global Initiative from the approved list. It addresses issues ranging from global health and childhood obesity to opportunities for girls and women and climate change.
Liggett noted that employees can give to Alliance Defending Freedom, an anti-abortion public-interest law firm that has gone to court to defend efforts by state lawmakers to restrict the rights of women to terminate a pregnancy.
Scarpinato said nothing in the new policy precludes employees from giving directly to either of the now-jettisoned organizations.
