OH was one of the states to pass legislation defunding the Planned Parenthood abortion business but a federal judge today ruled the Buckeye State can’t revoke taxpayer funds from the abortion company while its lawsuit against the state proceeds. Ohio’s new law terminates funding for Planned Parenthood and other abortion businesses, freeing up money for more widely available and more comprehensive low-priced healthcare options for women and families in the state. That money is mostly from the federal government and supports initiatives that provide HIV tests, cancer screenings and other prevention services. The Ohio law would bar such funds from going to entities that perform or promote abortions.
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Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio and Planned Parenthood Southwest Ohio Region sued the state, claiming the law violates their constitutional rights by denying them the funds “in retaliation for” providing abortions.
A spokesman for Ohio’s Republican attorney general says the state will appeal the ruling.
The more basic question seems to be whether money is fungible, i.e. once you give $1.4 million to Planned Parenthood that money is part of a pool, some of which is used to provide abortions (often in the same clinic where the publicly funded health services take place). “Plaintiffs would also no longer have access to the juvenile justice and foster-care systems to teach teenagers about healthy relationships…”
If not blocked, the judge wrote, Planned Parenthood would “suffer a continuing irreparable injury for which there is no adequate remedy at law”.
The Planned Parenthood abortion business is not happy the state of OH approved legislation to permanently ban any taxpayer funding for the abortion corporation.
“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.
In her talk to the DNC national nominating convention in Philadelphia recently, Planned Parenthood’s national leader, Cecile Richards, said of the former secretary of state and first lady, “Hillary has always been in Planned Parenthood’s corner, because she knows women deserve someone in theirs”, she said. “Politicians have no business blocking patients from the care they need – and today the court stopped them in their tracks”.
Anti-abortion activists hold a rally opposing federal funding for Planned Parenthood. “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”.
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The Ohio law signed by Gov. John Kasich in February while he was running for president would take state funding away from organizations that perform abortions.
