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Planned Parenthood of Central North Carolina (PPCNC) on Friday won a federal court injunction against a budget provision that would have blocked it from receiving state funds.
Two Planned Parenthood affiliates in the state offer STD testing and other sexual and reproductive services, as well as diabetes and cholesterol screenings. PPCNC has clinics in Durham, Chapel Hill, and Fayetteville.
The budget provision enjoined, Section 10.19, would have precluded funding to Planned Parenthood for contraceptive and teen pregnancy programs. Federal and state laws already bar Planned Parenthood from using public money for abortions, except in cases of rape, incest or where the mother’s life is endangered. Section 10.19 was enacted, over Gov. Beverly Perdue’s veto, by the first Republican-controlled North Carolina Assembly in over a century.
PPCNC argued the provision would lead to staff lay-offs, loss of subsidized and free contraceptives for poor women, and the closure of the Durham clinic.
The state claimed Planned Parenthood would not be unfairly punished, because it could apply for federal family planning funds directly. Attorneys for the General Assembly also cited the Legislature’s policy preference of “favoring childbirth over abortions.”
North Carolina “has not presented any evidence or even contention to establish how Section 10.19’s ban on using [Planned Parenthood] for non-abortion-related projects is rationally related to a legislative policy of funding childbirth services over abortion services,” ruled Judge James Beaty Jr.
“Based on the evidence before the court, it appears that Section 10.19 was adopted specifically to penalize” Planned Parenthood for its abortion-rights advocacy, Beaty wrote. Beaty cited the legislative history, including statements by House Majority Leader Paul Stam (R-Wake), linking Planned Parenthood to eugenics and saying, “We should not be rewarding the perpetrators of that program.”
The temporary reprieve means Planned Parenthood can continue providing services while the suit is being decided, said Paige Johnson, PPCNC’s vice president of public affairs.
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