Federal judge rules Ohio's effort to defund Planned Parenthood is unconstitutional, permanently

[TexasTowelie]

Federal judge rules Ohio's effort to defund Planned Parenthood is unconstitutional, permanently blocks law

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.

Read more: http://www.cleveland.com/open/index.ssf/2016/08/federal_judge_rules_ohios_effo.html

[chillfactor]

1. thank goodness....

defunding healthcare for the poor is if nothing else...not only immoral but criminal.

[Thinkingabout]

2. Good, it is time for these RW laws to be thrown out.

[riversedge]

3. OH OK--this OHIO law was enacted b/c of that video that claimed PP were selling fetal body parts...

So, glad the judge ruled unconstitutional.

.......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.