States Working to Block Planned Parenthood Funding

(Olivier Douliery/Getty Images)

By Courtney Coren
NEWSMAX

There is a move to block funding for Planned Parenthood, or investigate the group, in states controlled by Republicans.

After the state health agency in Florida, at the request of Gov. Rick Scott, began investigating three Planned Parenthood locations in the Sunshine State, Planned Parenthood of Southwest and Central Florida asked a judge Monday for an emergency injunction in an attempt to halt the inspections, The New York Times is reporting.

The state cited clinics in St. Petersburg, Naples and Fort Myers for allegedly performing abortions in the second trimester, while they are only allowed to do first-trimester abortions.

However, Planned Parenthood said that Florida’s allegations are not accurate because the state is using a definition of gestational age that is not accepted by the medical community.

Other GOP-led states are making their own moves to take action against the group, while several Republican lawmakers in Congress are threatening to allow the government to shut down in their effort to defund Planned Parenthood.

Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, New Hampshire and Utah are all threatening to cut off state funding, which is supposed to help supply services to some Medicaid patients in their respective states. The funding is expected to be pulled in September.

The federal government has warned that the states that pull the funding will be breaking their contracts and be in violation of federal law.

However, the Times notes that it may not be effective for the federal government to cut Medicaid funding off from the states, because that would only penalize beneficiaries.

Planned Parenthood has typically won in court when states have tried to take similar actions, according to the Times.

Legislatures in such states as Texas, South Carolina, Arizona, Kansas, Missouri and Ohio have also begun investigations into Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood affiliates in only three states — California, Oregon and Washington — operate fetal donation programs, the Times reports.