|
 The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati upheld a
lower-court judge's ruling enjoining a law Republican Governor John
Kasich signed in 2016 that would strip funding that Planned
Parenthood received for non-abortion services.
The law would have affected funding for Planned Parenthood programs
for mothers' and infants' health, HIV counseling and testing, and
sex education. Planned Parenthood offers abortions in some of its
Ohio clinics, but not all of them.
According to court papers, Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio and
Southwest Ohio said they stood to lose nearly $1.5 million in
funding annually if the law took effect.
"We are thrilled that today's decision will safeguard our patients'
access to care," Jerry Lawson, the chief executive of Planned
Parenthood Southwest Ohio, said in a statement.
Dan Tierney, a spokesman for Republican Ohio Attorney General Mike
DeWine, who defended the law in court, said his office was reviewing
the ruling to determine whether to seek further appellate review.
The lawsuit was one of several pursued by Planned Parenthood over
access to healthcare at its centers since 2015, when anti-abortion
activists began releasing videos purporting to show group officials
negotiating prices for aborted fetal tissue.
Planned Parenthood has called the videos heavily edited and
misleading and says at least 13 states that investigated those
claims have cleared it of wrongdoing.
[to top of second column] |
The law at issue in Wednesday's ruling required the Ohio Department
of Health to ensure that funding it received through six
non-abortion-related federal programs was not used to fund any
entity that performs or promotes non-therapeutic abortions.
Ohio argued that Planned Parenthood was seeking a constitutional
guarantee to public funding that does not exist. But U.S. Circuit
Judge Helene White said the two Planned Parenthood affiliates in the
case claimed no such thing.
"What they do claim is a right not to be penalized in the
administration of government programs based on protected activity
outside the programs," she wrote for the three-judge panel.
White said the law had violated Planned Parenthood's due process
rights by requiring a health care provider surrender its right to
provide legal abortions as a condition of participating in programs
that have nothing to do with abortion.
(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; editing by Richard Chang and
Dan Grebler)
[© 2018 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2018 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
 |
