COLUMBUS – At first blush, a federal judge believes Gov. John Kasich and Republican lawmakers who support abortion restrictions acted unconstitutionally to kill state funding to Planned Parenthood.
U.S. District Court Judge Michael Barrett of Cincinnati on Monday barred Ohio Department of Health Director Richard Hodges from enforcing a law to strip $1.5 million from the organization. The law was to have taken effect Monday.
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Ruling that Planned Parenthood demonstrated a “likelihood of success” in the courts, Barrett granted a temporary restraining order through June 6 in ordering the state to reinstate its terminated contracts with the group.
But Statehouse Republicans were quick to criticize the ruling for blocking “the implementation of a bipartisan-sponsored proposal that would have provided federally qualified health centers and pregnancy help clinics with a greater ability to serve women, children and families,” according to House Speaker Cliff Rosenberger (R-Clarksville).
“Today’s action also stalls a critical component of the law that addressed ways to reduce our state’s high infant mortality rate,” he said.
Democrats, as to be expected, had the opposite reaction:
“By temporarily blocking the defunding of Planned Parenthood in Ohio, the courts are effectively recognizing this bill for what it is – political posturing that puts women, infants and families in greater danger,” House Democratic Whip Nickie Antonio (D-Lakewood) said. “I remain hopeful that these politically motivated healthcare restrictions will be stopped once and for all.”
For more than 20 years, Planned Parenthood — which offers abortions at three of its 28 clinics — received federal grants and state money to offer non-abortion programs such as breast and cervical cancer screening, sexually transmitted disease testing, a Healthy Moms-Healthy Babies program and other services. But lawmakers voted early this year to terminate funding, for any purpose, to any abortion provider.
Barrett wrote in his order that the law would be “depriving thousands of Ohioans of high-quality, affordable health-care services and education programs.” The law “bears no rational relationship to Ohio’s stated interest of favoring childbirth.”
He added, “There is also no doubt that the Ohio legislature enacted (the law) for the purpose of placing a substantial obstacle in the path of a woman seeking to obtain an abortion.”
Funding cut from Planned Parenthood was to be redirected to other health clinics in Ohio. Supporters said it would help provide broader health-care coverage across the state, but opponents argued that many of those clinics do not offer the care for low-income women offered by Planned Parenthood.