Abortion foes picket Planned Parenthood

Planned Parenthood sued Ohio in federal court Wednesday, arguing the state's efforts to defund the organization's funding for health services it provides are in violation of the First and 14th amendments of the U.S. Constitution. Here protesters demonstrate last fall outside Planned Parenthood's health center in Bedford.

(Gus Chan, The Plain Dealer)

CLEVELAND, Ohio - In a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday, Planned Parenthood argues Ohio violated the U.S. constitution when it defunded the organization, punishing it for advocating safe abortions.

An Ohio law signed in February forbids the state from contracting for health services with any entity that performs or promotes non-therapeutic abortions. The organization could still perform abortions, but it would lose state health contracts.

So the lawsuit, filed jointly by Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio and Planned Parenthood of Southwest Ohio, seeks to keep the law from taking effect as scheduled May 23.

You can read the lawsuit below. Mobile users click here.

The organization seeks to protect more than two dozen clinics around the state that provide health services for women, men and children. It has already had some success in courts in Utah, fighting a similar law.

Here's what you need to know.

The law

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.

Republicans quickly moved the bill through both the House and Senate. Gov. John Kasich returned to Ohio from the presidential campaign trail to sign the bill on a Sunday in February.

The impact

The new law redirects about $1.3 million in state-directed grants from Ohio's 28 Planned Parenthood centers to federally qualified health centers, health departments and other facilities that don't perform elective abortions or contract with organizations that do. It also earmarks $250,000 from Medicaid funding for community health centers only.

Planned Parenthood clinics currently use the funding to pay for HIV and cancer screenings, sexual health education programs and infant mortality prevention, among other health services.

The funding doesn't make up a large percentage of the organization's overall budget - about 5 percent. But in the suit Planned Parenthood claims it makes up more than half of its educational budget and a significant portion of funding for screenings, including those for sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV.

Tens of thousands of men, women and children receive care through the clinics each year, said Iris Harvey, president of Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio. Many of the clinics are in rural areas or impoverished urban areas where there other health care options are limited or unavailable.

"Men, women and young people will go without the care they need," Harvey said. "For our patients, this is not about politics. It's about getting the care that they need."

The challenge

The lawsuit argues that the Ohio law is unconstitutional on two fronts.

One claim is that it violates rights under the First Amendment because punishes Planned Parenthood for providing legal abortions and advocating for safe and legal abortions. Both are constitutionally protected activities the suit argues.

The other front is that the law violates the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the 14th Amendment because it treats Planned Parenthood differently from other health care providers.

The Ohio Department of Health declined to comment on the suit because it involves pending litigation.

The suit takes an approach similar to challenges Planned Parenthood filed in Utah. A federal appellate judge there halted state actions that would have cut money Planned Parenthood funding for Medicaid contracts. That case is still pending.

The other side

Ohio Right to Life, the state's leading anti-abortion organization, has argued the Ohio law is necessary because the money helped Planned Parenthood pay for staff and clinic costs, helping to keep them operating, even if it was not used directly for abortion.

Wednesday the organization labeled the lawsuit as "frivolous" and "built on the absurd premise that they are short on money."

"The State of Ohio has every right and reason to cut off state funding from entities that do not fit our state policy to prefer childbirth over abortion," said Katie Franklin, Ohio Right to Life's communications director. "Millions of times over, Planned Parenthood has proven that its mission is antithetical to this policy, and its work is destructive to human life."

The cases around the country



The Ohio case is one of several pending around the country, many of which are a result of state efforts to defund Planned Parenthood.

Planned Parenthood usually files three to six cases a year over funding and access to its health clinics, said Raegan McDonald-Mosley, Planned Parenthood's national medical director.

Since last July - when the videos were released - Planned Parenthood has filed 15 cases, although not all involved defunding, McDonald-Mosley said. It has seen 24 states take action against it, including three this week.

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