CONCORD — State Representative Larry Pittman blasted Planned Parenthood as “a murderous organization … getting wealthy on murder for hire” in an email reply to a Planned Parenthood letter urging N.C. legislators not to cut funding to the organization.

The email to Pittman, who represents House District 82, originated with Planned Parenthood and was sent on May 24 to each member of the N.C. House of Representatives Health and Human Services Appropriations committee.

“Planned Parenthood is an essential community provider in North Carolina,” the email from Planned Parenthood said. “Each year, at nine health centers across the state, they provide over 18,000 tests for sexually transmitted infections, over 11,000 life-saving breast and cervical cancer screenings, and contraceptive services to more than 61,000 women.”

Pittman’s emailed reply charges that Planned Parenthood “deals out nothing but deception, death, personal devastation, and moral degradation. Never will I agree to give that bloody, indecent, immoral organization one penny. I will not be satisfied until it is outlawed.”

An Asheville woman signed her name to the pre-written letter that was sent to Pittman, who replied the same day, according to an email string forwarded to the Independent Tribune.

“Regardless of anyone’s stance on abortion, the point of this story is how unprofessional and inappropriate our elected government official has acted,” said the woman, who asked that her name be withheld to protect her privacy.

Contacted for comment, Pittman did not back down from his attack on Planned Parenthood.

“My sources tell me that 75 percent of 1 / 8Planned Parenthood’s 3 / 8 income comes through abortions,” Pittman told the Independent Tribune in an email. “To say that they would try to reduce the incidence of abortion is like saying a baker would go around trying to get people to stop eating bread.”

Planned Parenthood has long claimed that abortions represent about 3 percent of its services.

“As for being ‘unprofessional,’ professionalism can be a good thing,” Pittman said. “However, it can be overemphasized, and often is, by those who are offended by someone who stands up and pulls the mask off of the evil around us. This is spiritual warfare. Professionalism is a secondary concern to opposing and exposing evil.”

The 2012 budget, written by the Republican-majority General Assembly, forbids Planned Parenthood and its affiliates from receiving any contracts or grants from the state health agency.

One of the state’s two Planned Parenthood affiliates filed a federal lawsuit in July to invalidate the part of the budget that restricts state funding to local health departments, effectively cutting funding to Planned Parenthood.

Pittman narrowly defeated Cabarrus County Commissioner Jay White in the May 8 GOP primary. Pittman was appointed to the seat in October 2011. He is unopposed in the November general election.