Ohio Court rules family planning and abortion facilities must be separated
The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals granted the state of Ohio a legal injunction that clinics receiving federal family planning funds must not be in the same physical location as the facilities that provide abortions.
The legal challenge to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) rolled back a 2019 Trump-era rule that prohibited taxpayer-funded programs from providing family planning services and abortion services at the same physical location.
According to Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost's office, in a 2-1 opinion in Ohio et al. v. Becerra et al., the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday granted Ohio an injunction against part of the HHS rules.
Title X of the Public Health Service Act empowers the Secretary of Health and Human Services “to make grants to and enter into contracts with public or nonprofit private entities to assist in the establishment and operation of voluntary family planning projects..."
It also prohibits funding to an organization that incorporates abortion as a form of family planning, which is known as the "gag" rule - something the HHS tried to repeal in 2021.
The appeals court decision stems from a lawsuit filed in 2021 by Ohio and 12 other states seeking a preliminary injunction against the Biden administration’s rules changes, calling them “arbitrary and capricious” and in violation of the Title X law.
The Court decided that the states suing the HHS would not be able to argue the law is "arbitrary and capricious."
A lower court initially denied the preliminary injunction, and the state appealed the ruling.
In its ruling this week, the appeals court granted an injunction exclusively to Ohio, not the co-plaintiff states, saying that only Ohio had demonstrated a substantial loss of funds that warrants an injunction.
According to Yost's office, Ohio showed how the Ohio Department of Health’s grant money decreased significantly after the rule changes allowed Planned Parenthood to re-enter the Title X program.
Yost argued that because the organization took $1 million from the state's Department of Health. When Planned Parenthood left Title X, the state received $8.8 million in grants and when Planned Parenthood re-joined the program, the Department of Health only received $7,040,000, which amounts to a little more than a $1 million loss.
"Whatever your opinion on abortion as a moral matter,” Yost said. "The court vindicated Congress’ considered judgment that tax dollars should not fund programs that use abortion as a method of family planning.”
