Ohio has notified all of the Planned Parenthood outlets in Ohio that their funding will be cut off next month. Last year the state provided them with $600,000. Originally the Ohio legislature passed a law cutting all funding for Planned Parenthood and then-Gov Kasich signed the bill.
A district activist judge halted the bill but then it went to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit reversed that decision and upheld the law. Last week, Judge Jeffrey Sutton ruled that the law was not unconstitutional because the state is not obligated to give money to places that provide abortions and that the bill did not prevent women from having an abortion.
“Private organizations do not have a constitutional right to obtain governmental funding to support their activities,” the judge continued. “The State also may choose not to subsidize constitutionally protected activities.”
Upon receipt of the state’s notice, Iris Harvey, CEO of Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio, tweeted that current Gov. Mike DeWine is “HEARTLESS”:
Gov DeWine is HEARTLESS. Just got a 30 day notice from Health Dept. Defunding Planned Parenthood work to reduce Black infant mortality, prevent violence against women, provide cancer screenings, HIV tests and sex education! All care health depts couldn’t do!
— IRIS E. Harvey (@CeoGreaterOhio) March 21, 2019
The bill passed in 2016 and DeWine did not become governor until 2019.
Ohio Department of Health Director Amy Acton, however, said Planned Parenthood would not suffer financially due to the end of state funding. The organization received about $600,000 in state funding in 2018.
“It will not be injured at all,” Acton said in a court filing. “Planned Parenthood claims that it will have to cut programs if it loses state funding. That claim is dubious. … Ohio’s taxpayers should not be on the hook for additional payments — payments to which Planned Parenthood is not entitled, and that Ohio will be unable to reclaim — simply because Planned Parenthood failed to plan ahead.”