Wisconsin defunds Planned Parenthood but likely faces legal challenge

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker on Thursday signed two bills defunding Planned Parenthood, measures designed to eliminate a total of $8 million in taxpayer funds from reaching the abortion giant. But Wisconsin’s pro-life win might not last long. Hit with legal injunctions, most of the other eight states that have passed Planned Parenthood defunding laws have been unable to enforce them.

Wisconsin’s AB 310 mandates state funds designated for family planning and health services go only to centers that do not provide abortions, make referrals for abortions, or have affiliates that provide or make referrals for abortions.

According to its website, Planned Parenthood operates 22 centers in Wisconsin, three of which aborted 3,695 babies in 2014. All of its locations offer chemical abortions and make referrals to the three centers that carry out surgical abortions. Planned Parenthood stands to lose $3.5 million as a result of AB 310 becoming law.

SB 238 will cut another $4.5 million from Planned Parenthood’s bottom line by requiring billing for prescription drugs to be for the actual acquisition costs and dispensing fees.

The two bills “prioritize women’s health while improving government and its services to Wisconsin,” Walker said in a press release.

Governors in Alabama, Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Texas, and Utah have signed bills over the past six months defunding Planned Parenthood in their states. Republican presidential contender Gov. John Kasich is expected soon to do the same in Ohio. The defunding effort was prompted by undercover videos released by the Center for Medical Progress (CMP), showing Planned Parenthood’s alleged involvement in the illegal sale of aborted babies’ body parts.

But in almost every state where Planned Parenthood has sought injunctive relief in the courts, it has won.

In November, a federal judge in Alabama blocked a state law that suspended Medicaid payments to Planned Parenthood. The judge ruled it was improper for the state to terminate its Medicaid contract with Planned Parenthood based on allegations stemming from the CMP videos.

Defunding efforts are on hold in Arkansas and Louisiana as well, blocked in October by judges who made rulings similar to the one in Alabama.

In August, Utah Gov. Gary Herbert ordered his state’s health department to stop the distribution of federal funds to Planned Parenthood. But on Dec. 31, a federal appeals court placed a temporary injunction on that action.

Efforts to defund Planned Parenthood in Kansas have met with more success, as WORLD previously reported. Gov. Sam Brownback signed a law in 2011 similar to Wisconsin’s AB 310, preventing the state’s health department from channeling family planning funds to abortion providers. In an effort to “finish the job,” Brownback last month ordered the state’s health department not to let any taxpayer money go to Planned Parenthood through Medicaid. But Kansas has not yet turned that order into law.

Also in August, New Hampshire’s Executive Council voted to eliminate some contracts with Planned Parenthood of Northern New England and other abortion providers, cutting about one-third of the abortion centers’ public funding. The relatively small amount of lost income might be part of the reason Planned Parenthood has yet to mount a legal challenge.

The same month, a federal judge blocked a provision in the North Carolina state budget that denied funding to Planned Parenthood for family planning. But in October, Gov. Pat McCrory made the provision a state law, signing a bill that bans state funds earmarked for family planning from going to abortion providers. No challenges to the North Carolina law have yet been reported.

Texas took matters into its own hands, replacing a canceled federal Medicaid program for women’s health with its own version. In October, state officials announced Texas would cut all Medicaid funds to Planned Parenthood, although the state has yet to follow through.

States hoping to write Planned Parenthood and other abortion organizations permanently out of their budgets will need to maintain their pro-life governorships and legislatures through the next election cycle. They also will need protection at the highest judicial level, a shield that could rest on the outcome of the political battle over Justice Antonin Scalia’s replacement.