Posted on 08/06/2003 8:24:19 AM PDT by joesnuffy
ug. 4, 2003, 11:56PM
Planned Parenthood's doors to remain open
Injunction puts brakes on new funding
By POLLY ROSS HUGHES Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau
AUSTIN -- Planned Parenthood clinics serving 115,000 Texas women will remain open at least one more year after winning a reprieve Monday from a new state law aimed at stopping abortions.
U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks granted Planned Parenthood a temporary injunction halting state enforcement of a law that would deny funding to clinics that provide abortions paid for with private donations.
That law was set to go into effect Sept. 1 but now must await the outcome of a trial on the merits of the case. A trial date has not been set.
At issue are 33 Planned Parenthood clinics across the state that provide abortions along with a range of other reproductive health services. About $13 million, including federal funds administered by the Texas Department of Health, would have been affected.
"This ruling would mean that all of those would be funded," said Health Department spokesman Doug McBride.
"As a state agency, we're obligated to do what the Legislature through law tells us to do until a court tells us otherwise," he added. "A court has told us otherwise, and we will comply with the judge's ruling."
"We strongly disagree with this decision," the Associated Press quoted Kelly Shackleford, chief counsel for the Liberty Legal Institute, as saying. "Planned Parenthood has no right to force Texas taxpayers to support its efforts to kill the unborn."
Planned Parenthood argued that without the federal funds, it would no longer be able to provide Pap smears, family planning services, breast and cancer screenings and other health care to women.
In Houston and Southeast Texas, 23,000 women at nine Planned Parenthood clinics would have lost services, said Peter Durkin, chief executive officer at Planned Parenthood of Houston and the Southeast.
"It's a great sense of relief because the state fiscal year starts at the first of September," Durkin said. "This small victory will postpone implementation of any of the Draconian requirements of Rider 8."
The budget item by Sens. Steve Ogden, R-Bryan, and Tommy Williams, R-The Woodlands, was attached to the House appropriations bill last spring by a conference committee that formed the final state budget.
The Texas Attorney General's Office, which represents Health Commissioner Dr. Eduardo Sanchez in the case, has 30 days to weigh its options, said spokesman Tom Kelley.
"We haven't decided on an appeal," he said. "What the judge said was that those entities that were denied funding now must receive it."
Proponents of the new law argued the clinics could keep their funding by simply agreeing to stop providing abortions.
The lawmakers voting for the measure also said they believe that, despite claims otherwise, Planned Parenthood subsidizes abortions somewhat through the federal funding. Planned Parenthood says numerous audits prove that isn't true.
Sparks' order noted Congress intended for federal money to fund clinics that provide reproductive counseling, cancer and sexually transmitted disease screening, physical examinations, pregnancy tests and other health services.
"The court finds the public interest will certainly be served by allowing the plaintiffs to continue receiving federal funds to provide these crucial services to women throughout Texas," Sparks concluded.
Serving of death.
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