JEFFERSON CITY — A St. Louis judge has blocked Missouri’s Republican-led Legislature from cutting off funding to abortion providers and their affiliates.

In a decision that adds another legal front to the courtroom battles already underway between a state government controlled by the GOP and affiliates of Planned Parenthood, Judge David Dowd said the attempted funding prohibition was constitutionally flawed and couldn’t be completely enforced.

The ruling potentially protects health care options for an estimated 7,000 people.

The case stems from a 2018 initiative by lawmakers to block Medicaid funding from going to “any abortion facility” and “any affiliate or associate thereof.”

It has become a common practice for lawmakers to use the budget to legislate policy initiatives. This year, for example, they used the maneuver to block college students with unlawful immigration status from receiving in-state tuition rates at Missouri universities.

In the case of the abortion language, Planned Parenthood sued the state saying some of its chapters provide preventive health care, but not abortion, and should not be penalized.