Planned Parenthood wins fight against Mississippi funding law
State lawmakers have passed some 300 laws since 2011 restricting funding for abortion providers. Federal courts have been slowly knocking them down.
State lawmakers have passed some 300 laws since 2011 restricting funding for abortion providers. Federal courts have been slowly knocking them down.
A federal judge has blocked a Mississippi law that banned Medicaid spending to any organization associated with abortion providers, siding with two Planned Parenthood affiliates in their June challenge to the law.聽
The law would have cut off Medicaid funding to the state鈥檚 only abortion clinic, as well as to its single Planned Parenthood clinic, which doesn鈥檛 provide abortions, according to the Jackson Free Press.聽
In his decision, Judge Daniel Jordan cited a September appeals court ruling on a law passed in Louisiana, writing that聽鈥渆ssentially every court to consider similar laws has found that they violate鈥� federal rules prohibiting the blocking of Medicaid funds to qualified providers.
Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant, a Republican who says he wants to end abortion in the state, said in a statement that he was聽鈥渙bviously disappointed鈥澛爓ith the ruling.
"I believe the law was the right thing to do and I will continue to stand with the legislature and people of Mississippi who do not want their hard-earned money going to the largest abortion provider in the nation," he聽wrote in a Facebook post.聽
Legislative chambers in conservative-led states have sheltered the flame of opposition to abortion services, enacting hundreds of restrictions in recent years that choke off funding streams and erect obstacles to access. In response, Planned Parenthood has taken those laws to federal courts 鈥撀燼 strategy that has generally worked in its favor.
That鈥檚 particularly true when the funding stream comes from Medicaid, one of two federal programs that keeps low-income clinics like Planned Parenthood affiliates running. In fact, Medicaid contributes as much as 40 percent of Planned Parenthood's funding, noted NPR in 2015. The Mississippi clinics were an exception: the Jackson Free Press reports that combined Medicaid payments were less than $1,000 over the past few years.
States have had more success in restricting money from a federal family-planning program, Title X. In 2014, an appeals court upheld a Kansas law that prioritized county health departments for Title X funding over reproductive service providers, effectively starving Planned Parenthood and other family-planning clinics, according to the Associated Press.聽At least 13 states have created similar laws, though the Obama administration has recently proposed changes to Title X that would bar states from establishing their own eligibility restrictions for funding.
Abortions account for just 3 percent of Planned Parenthood's services, but it remains the nation鈥檚 largest abortion provider 鈥撀爉ore than enough to justify its shuttering, opponents say,聽as 海角大神鈥檚 Jessica Mendoza wrote in 2015:
In a press release,聽Planned Parenthood Federation of America president Cecile Richards celebrated Thursday's ruling.聽聽
"Yet another court has said it is unacceptable for politicians to dictate where women can go for their health care," she wrote.聽"This case is about the people who rely on us for basic care every day.聽We will not stand for these attacks on our patients' right to health care, and聽Planned Parenthood will fight for our patients at every turn."