A judge on Friday prevented OH from cutting federal taxpayer funding from 28 Planned Parenthood clinics, setting back the governor’s hopes of stopping the women’s health services group from providing abortions.
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“In Ohio and across the country, women’s health is under attack”, she said, noting, “In the a year ago alone, eleven states have defunded Planned Parenthood, and in the first three months of 2016, states introduced more than 400 measures restricting access to abortion”.
“It is the public policy of the state of Ohio to prefer childbirth over abortion, and we should be allowed to allocate funds accordingly”, Katie Franklin, a spokeswoman for Ohio Right to Life, was quoted by AP as saying.
So the abortion company sued. A judge appointed by George W. Bush has ruled that Ohio’s law defunding Planned Parenthood is unconstitutional because it violates the group’s First Amendment rights. “OH has a history of preferring childbirth over abortion and this common sense and life-enhancing citizen policy has been ignored by this activist judge”.
“Well Judge Barrett’s decision is a clear violation of state rights and the conscious right of taxpayers”.
Planned Parenthood says OH is one of two dozen states where legislators since last July have tried to oust the group by blocking its funding.
Planned Parenthood officials praised the decision, calling it a win for Ohioans who rely on the organization for care.
“As was the case in Roe v. Wade, yet again, an activist judge is fabricating “rights” out of thin air to the benefit of the abortion industry”. That accounts for an obscene 42 percent of its total revenue.
After Kasich signed the defunding bill, Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Casey Mattox told LifeNews he is happy Kasich did so. The money goes to programs separate from abortion, such as work to fight HIV/AIDS in communities of color, provide sexual health education for young people, offer breast and cervical cancer prevention, work to end sexual violence against women, reduce infant mortality and STD prevention.
Critics, many of whom seek to outlaw abortion in the United States, have falsely accused Planned Parenthood of selling fetal organs and body parts for profit, and encouraging women to have abortions in order to expand such operations. “OH is right to end its relationship with organizations undeserving of taxpayer money and unworthy of the taxpayers’ trust”.
A spokesman for Ohio’s Republican attorney general says the state will appeal the ruling. The lawsuit names the state’s health director as a defendant.
If not blocked, Barrett wrote, Planned Parenthood would “suffer a continuing irreparable injury for which there is no adequate remedy at law”.
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“The people of Ohio should not have their access to critical health care blocked because of political agendas”, said Jerry Lawson, CEO of Planned Parenthood Southwest Ohio, in a statement.
