Abortion foes picket Planned Parenthood

A federal judge on Friday permanently blocked Ohio from implementing laws that would defund Planned Parenthood by making the agency ineligible for state funding to pay for health care programs for the poor and declaring the laws unconstitutional. Here picketers protest outside Planned Parenthood's center in Bedford Heights last October.

(Gus Chan, The Plain Dealer)

CINCINNATI, Ohio -- A federal judge on Friday permanently blocked Ohio from implementing laws that would defund Planned Parenthood by making the agency ineligible for state funding to pay for health care programs for the poor.

The judge also ruled the laws unconstitutional.

Judge Michael R. Barrett of U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio ruled the state's efforts violated Planned Parenthood's rights to free speech and due process and that any action to implement the law would cause irreparable injury.

While Barrett acknowledged that Ohio could legally establish a policy that favored childbirth over abortion and that it could (as it has done) bar use of public funding on non-therapeutic abortion procedures, the programs hit by this state law have nothing to do with abortion.

You can read the judge's ruling below. Mobile users click here.

What the law did

The programs, operated by Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio and Planned Parenthood Southwest Ohio, provide health services for the poor at little to no cost to patients. The services included testing for HIV/AIDS and other STDs, Pap smears and other cancer screenings, infant mortality prevention programs and sexual health education programs.

Planned Parenthood won contracts from the state to provide the services, in many cases as the lowest and best bidder for the programs.

The state law effectively would have forced Planned Parenthood to abandon a constitutionally protected activity as a condition of receiving public funds unrelated to abortion, Barrett ruled.

Reaction to the ruling

Planned Parenthood cheered the ruling as a victory for access to health care services.

"This law would have been especially burdensome to communities of color and people with low income who already often have the least access to care - this law would have made a bad situation worse," said Iris E. Harvey, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio. "Politicians have no business blocking patients from the care they need - and today the court stopped them in their tracks."

The Ohio Department of Health and its director, Richard Hodges, did not have an immediate comment to the ruling. The attorney general's office said the state will appeal.

Ohio Right to Life, an anti-abortion advocate, decried the ruling, labeling Barrett an unelected activist judge.

"Judge Barrett's decision is a clear violation of states' rights and the conscience rights of taxpayers," said Katie Franklin, director of communications for Ohio Right to Life. "It is the public policy of the state of Ohio to prefer childbirth over abortion, and we should be allowed to allocate funds accordingly. Planned Parenthood has no constitutional right to the hard-earned dollars of taxpayers, millions of whom have deep and abiding objections to the corporation's pro-abortion business model."

NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio, an advocate for abortion rights, cautioned that the state should stop spending taxpayer dollars to try to end abortion in Ohio.

"This is the latest in a series of stinging court defeats for John Kasich and his anti-abortion agenda," said Kellie Copeland, the agency's executive director. "Kasich, Attorney General Mike DeWine and their allies in the Ohio Legislature need to stop using taxpayer dollars to attack Planned Parenthood and abortion access because they are going to lose."

Origins of the law

Ohio Gov. John Kasich signed the legislation enacting the law in February. Planned Parenthood sued in May, claiming it was unconstitutional, shortly before it was scheduled to take effect. Barrett issued a temporary injuction that month to block the law change.

The push for the Ohio legislation, and similar laws across the country, was fueled by secretly recorded videos released last summer that purported to show Planned Parenthood employees in other states selling aborted fetuses and fetal parts.

Planned Parenthood denied any wrongdoing and an investigation by Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine found no evidence that Ohio clinics sold fetal tissue. But lawmakers were not dissuaded, even after a Texas grand jury in January found no wrongdoing by the abortion provider and instead indicted the anti-abortion activist who filmed the videos. Those charges later were dropped.

What happens next

The next moves are up to the state.

A spokesman for Attorney General Mike DeWine confirmed Friday afternoon that the state intends to appeal Barrett's ruling. That case would go to the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.