For Immediate Release:
Thursday, April 13, 2017
(RALEIGH) Attorney General Josh Stein took action this week to oppose efforts to defund Planned Parenthood. AG Stein is seeking to join 16 other state attorneys general to file an amicus brief that challenges an Ohio law that would defund Planned Parenthood and other health service providers.
“Planned Parenthood provides needed preventive and primary health care services to women across North Carolina,” said AG Stein. “This law and other similar measures force health care providers to choose between these critical health care services and delivering reproductive health care. This is not only wrong, it’s against the Constitution.”
The attorneys general argue that the Ohio law violates the First Amendment and Due Process Clause because the law imposes an unconstitutional condition on state grants that infringes on the plaintiffs’ right to free speech, the plaintiffs’ right to provide access to abortion services and their clients’ right to receive those services.
The law, which was enjoined before it could take effect, would have prohibited the State of Ohio from awarding public-health grants to providers who perform or promote safe and legal abortions. The grants provide funds for education to prevent violence against women, screening for breast and cervical cancer, HIV and AIDS prevention, sexually transmitted disease testing and treatment and infant mortality prevention. The grants are wholly unrelated to reproductive health services.
Contact:
Laura Brewer (919) 716-6484
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