A federal appeals court blocked an Ohio law that stripped Planned Parenthood affiliates of taxpayer funding it received for non-abortion services.
In its ruling Wednesday, a three-judge panel on the Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a ruling from a lower court judge that enjoined the law, which targets entities that perform or promote abortions.
Signed by Ohio Gov. John Kasich in February 2016, the measure was supposed to be enacted in May 2016. But Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio and Planned Parenthood of Southwest Ohio Region sued the state and called for the law to be blocked.
The two Planned Parenthood affiliates claimed the measure violated their First Amendment rights by denying them federal and state money “because of — and in retaliation for — their constitutionally protected advocacy for abortion rights and affiliation with other organizations that also advocate for abortion rights and/or provide abortion services.”
The Planned Parenthood chapters argued the law violated the Equal Protection Clause because it singled out abortion providers and those who promote abortions “for unfavorable treatment.”
The law at issue in the case targeted the nearly $1.5 million the Planned Parenthood affiliates receive in funding through the Ohio Department of Health, according to court filings. The money comes from six non-abortion-related federal health programs.
Under the Ohio law, the state Department of Health was tasked with ensuring that money was not used to fund any entity that performs or promotes abortions, or becomes an affiliate of an entity that performs or promotes abortions.
The state argued Planned Parenthood was seeking a “constitutional guarantee to public funding,” and stressed the “Constitution contains no such guarantee.”
But Judge Helene White, writing for the panel, said in the opinion Wednesday that this argument was a mischaracterization of the affiliates’ claims.
“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.
White, appointed by President George W. Bush, said the Ohio Department of Health wrongly argued “that because Ohio has the right to refuse to fund abortion, it necessarily has the right to refuse to provide any funds to abortion providers, regardless of how the funds are to be used.”
Dan Tierney, a spokesman for the Ohio Attorney General’s Office, said the office is reviewing whether to ask the full 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to review the case or appeal directly to the Supreme Court.
