Judge blocks Ohio law to divert Planned Parenthood money

Planned Parenthood says the law violates the organization’s constitutional rights by denying it public funds “in retaliation for” providing abortions.

The clinics have argued they’ve been singled out because, although all but three of the OH clinics do not perform abortions, they do make referrals. Their lawsuit names the state’s health director as a defendant.

Barrett’s decision Friday cites those arguments – as well as the discontinuation of Planned Parenthood’s teenage counseling program on healthy relationships – as reason that there is no “adequate remedy” available under law.

The law’s financial impact on Planned Parenthood would make it unable to provide certain resources – including education groups for teenagers in at-risk situations – to the state, Barrett said. But the state’s attorneys say OH gets to choose how to spend the public’s money. “Therefore, under the unconstitutional conditions doctrine, (the law) can not condition funding for these programs based on a recipient’s exercise of the right to free speech or association outside of these programs”.

The 58-year-old is accused of opening fire outside the clinic before storming the building for a five-hour siege which saw three people killed and nine others sustain gunshot wounds.

“John Kasich is proudly eliminating care for expectant mothers and newborns; he is leaving thousands without vital STD and HIV testing, slashing a program to fight domestic violence, and cutting access to essential, basic health care”, Planned Parent President Cecile Richards said when the governor signed the legislation.

According to Planned Parenthood, politicians in 24 states have either enacted or proposed measures since last July that target the organization with defunding.

A judge on Thursday ordered Dear to remain at the Colorado State Mental Health Institute at Pueblo for at least 90 more days.

Planned Parenthood says that since a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June that struck down tough abortion restrictions in Texas, courts have blocked laws there and in Alabama, Alaska, Florida, Kansas, Indiana, Mississippi, Ohio, Utah and Wisconsin.