AG Mike DeWine defends Ohio law de-funding Planned Parenthood
Ohio Right to Life commends pro-life Attorney General
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Katherine Franklin
DATE: Wednesday, February 22, 2017 PHONE: 614-547-0099 ext. 304
COLUMBUS, Ohio–Today, Ohio Right to Life commended pro-life Attorney General Mike DeWine for defending Ohio’s law de-funding Planned Parenthood. Earlier this month, the Attorney General’s office filed a brief in the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, appealing a lower court’s decision to block the law. The Attorney General argues that the law is constitutional, and that states have a right to allocate taxpayer dollars how they choose.
“Ohio Right to Life thanks Attorney General DeWine for defending Ohio taxpayers from the demands of Planned Parenthood,” said Mike Gonidakis, president of Ohio Right to Life. “His defense of our law perfectly spells out the absurdity of Planned Parenthood’s assumption that it has a constitutional guarantee to taxpayer dollars. It is the public policy of the state of Ohio to prefer childbirth over abortion. We shouldn’t be forced to send money to an entity whose business model is the reverse.”
Governor John Kasich signed Ohio Right to Life’s law de-funding Planned Parenthood of over $1 million in February 2016. In May, Planned Parenthood sued the state, weeks before the law was set to take effect. A federal district court judge in Cincinnati, Michael Barrett, granted a temporary restraining order on the law, preventing it from taking effect. In August, Judge Barrett ruled Ohio’s effort unconstitutional, permanently blocking the law.
“We fully expect the Sixth Circuit to overturn Judge Barrett’s activist ruling,” said Gonidakis. “If the conscience rights of taxpayers and states’ rights mean anything, we will soon see the end of this frivolous lawsuit, and Planned Parenthood will be de-funded in Ohio.”
Click here to read the appeal filed by Attorney General Mike DeWine.
Founded in 1967, Ohio Right to Life, with more than 45 chapters and local affiliates, is Ohio’s oldest and largest grassroots pro-life organization. Recognized as the flagship of the pro-life movement in Ohio, ORTL works through legislation and education to promote and defend innocent human life from conception to natural death.
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