High court won't hear case against New Hampshire Planned Parenthood

The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to hear a case brought by New Hampshire Right to Life (NHRTL) seeking the release of documents related to a $1 million federal grant given to Planned Parenthood of Northern New England.

The Supreme Court’s dismissal upholds a lower court’s decision to require only the partial release of documents.

“NHRTL has been very concerned with the lack of transparency within the Obama administration,” said NHRTL president Jane Cormier. “All attempts to obtain full transparency with regard to this federal non-competitive grant have been rejected. NHRTL believed it was time the taxpayers of NH received all the facts regarding the spending of their tax dollars.”

In 2011, New Hampshire lawmakers chose not to siphon federal Title X (family planning) grant money to Planned Parenthood due to suspicions the abortion provider used the federal money to fund abortions. Planned Parenthood applied directly to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and was awarded the $1 million grant.

NHRTL then submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to see the documents Planned Parenthood submitted to HHS. The agency stalled until a court ordered it to produce some of the documents.

But the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston ruled HHS could withhold other documents, including Planned Parenthood’s Manual of Medical Standards and Guidelines. The court reasoned the documents could be exempted from the information request under a federal law that exempts “trade secrets and commercial or financial information obtained from a person and privileged or confidential.”

When NHRTL appealed, the majority of U.S. Supreme Court justices agreed to dismiss the case. Justice Clarence Thomas, joined by Justice Antonin Scalia, dissented, arguing the lower court’s ruling misinterpreted federal law.

“The First Circuit’s decision warrants review,” Thomas wrote. “It perpetuates an unsupported interpretation of an important federal statute and further muddies an already amorphous test.”

The court’s refusal to hear the New Hampshire case follows its decision Friday to review a challenge to a Texas law tightening regulations at abortion facilities, the first major abortion case admitted by the court since 2007.

The dismissal also follows allegations of illegal activity at Planned Parenthood facilities. Undercover videos released by the Center for Medical Progress (CMP) suggest Planned Parenthood has illegally profited from the sale of aborted baby parts.

“Americans deserve to know if their tax money is being funneled to groups that are misusing it,” said Michael Tierney, an Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) affiliated attorney representing NHRTL. “We had hoped the U.S. Supreme Court would consider this case, which would have addressed whether the government can continue to veil its support for Planned Parenthood.”

In January 2014, New Hampshire lawmakers reversed their 2011 decision to remove Planned Parenthood from its list of Title X grant recipients. But shortly after CMP released its videos, they once again voted to defund Planned Parenthood.

“Americans are already being forced to fund Planned Parenthood, which has become the subject of numerous investigations, with more than $500 million in taxpayer dollars annually,” said ADF senior counsel Casey Mattox. “At the very least, the government must be transparent about this money.”