Planned Parenthood is suing Arkansas’ to overturn an attempt to strip Medicaid dollars to clinics in the state.
The women’s health organization has also sued Alabama and Louisana, which tried to do the same maneuver. The states were acting in response to a series of undercover videos detailing the donation and compensation of aborted fetal parts.
Republican Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson “has no business telling women in Arkansas where they can and cannot go for cancer screenings, birth control, HIV tests and other care. Politicians in Arizona and Indiana have tried — and failed — to do the same thing,” said Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood, in a statement.
The effort is the latest legal action the organization has taken in response to the undercover videos from anti-abortion activist group Center for Medical Progress.
The videos show Planned Parenthood officials describing the process of procuring aborted fetal parts for fetal tissue research and the compensation for such donations.
With Congress unable to defund the organization, states took the matter into their own hands to strip Medicaid dollars. However, the federal government has warned the states that doing so may be in violation of federal law.
The push to defund Planned Parenthood, which gets about half a million in federal dollars each year, is far from over in Congress. Opponents of the group have signaled they will not vote for any spending bills that fund the organization, even if it shuts down the government.
The government runs out of money on Oct. 1 unless funding is extended beforehand.
Planned Parenthood said that it has two health centers in Arkansas in Little Rock and Fayetteville.
