[JURIST] A judge for the US District Court for the District of Utah [official website] on Tuesday blocked an order by Governor Gary Herbert [official profile] that would have prevented Planned Parenthood [advocacy website] from receiving federal funds after the release of controversial videos. The videos, which depicted Planned Parenthood officials discussing the sale of fetal tissue in, what was described by Herbert, as a callous manner, were filmed in Texas and other states, but it is unclear if any of the videos were recorded in a Utah Planned Parenthood. The order will allow Planned Parenthood to receive temporary funding from the Utah Department of Health, and a hearing is scheduled for October 15 to allow consideration for an injunction against the governor’s order. A spokesperson for Herbert said in response to the ruling [press release] that “[t]he governor stands by his actions and looks forward to responding to Planned Parenthood’s claims in court. Today’s procedural action does not deter Governor Herbert’s resolve to carry out his directive.”

Abortion related issues have been a heated topic of discussion for the past several years in the US. Earlier this month,the US House of Representatives [official website] approved [JURIST report] the Defund Planned Parenthood Act of 2015, a bill that would cut all federal funding to women’s healthcare provider Planned Parenthood. In August Planned Parenthood filed a complaint [JURIST report] in the US District Court for the Middle District of Alabama, alleging that Alabama Governor Robert Bentley’s termination of Medicaid provider agreements for the facility violates a federal law that requires Medicaid beneficiaries to have a choice in provider for family planning. Also in August the Alaska Superior Court struck down [JURIST report] a state law it says would have unfairly burdened low-income individuals by limiting Medicaid funding for abortions. Also last month the US District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee lifted [JURIST report] a temporary restraining order that limited the state in enforcing new abortion laws regarding licensing standards for clinics. In July Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker signed into law [JURIST report] the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, limiting the ability of a woman to seek an abortion more than 20 weeks into her pregnancy. In June the US Supreme Court granted a motion to stay [JURIST report], allowing more than half of Texas’ 18 abortion clinics to stay open by temporarily blocking a law that would place stringent requirements on clinics requiring the majority of them to close.