The US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled 11-6 Tuesday that Ohio can enforce a 2016 law preventing Planned Parenthood, and any other organization that “performs or promotes nontherapeutic abortions” from receiving state funds. The decision by the en banc court overturns a ruling by a three-judge panel that the state could not enforce the law.
Planned Parenthood already could not use state funds for abortions, but the new law cuts off all state funding, including money for programs combating STIs and breast cancer. Planned Parenthood had argued that the Ohio law created an unconstitutional condition on state funding in violation of the Due Process Clause. In its decision, the court recognized that the law did place a condition on the funding, but found “that the condition was constitutional because that condition does not violate the Constitution because the affiliates do not have a due process right to perform abortions.”
The Sixth Circuit cited to the Supreme Court case, Planned Parenthood v Casey, which stated that women have a Constitutional right to seek nontherapeutic abortions, but that organizations which partnered with the state through funding did not have a protected right to perform those abortions. Rather, a state’s restrictions can only be found Unconstitutional if they place an undue burden on the woman’s right. The majority decided that, because Planned Parenthood had announced that they would continue performing abortions, even if Ohio’s law was enforced, the law could not present an undue burden.
The dissent cited to a passage of the Casey case saying that the provider’s right to perform abortions “is derivative of the woman’s position.” The six judges argued that this “derivative” right was sufficient to invoke due process protections.
The decision does not affect Planned Parenthood Ohio from receiving funds from Medicaid for services performed in Ohio.