The 6th Circuit just handed down a major ruling kneecapping Planned Parenthood.

Ohio passed a law in 2016 requiring that the Ohio Department of Health “ensure” that all of the funds it receives for six government-sponsored health and education programs targeting sexually transmitted diseases, breast cancer and cervical cancer, teen pregnancy, infant mortality, and sexual violence not be used to do any of the following: 

(1) Perform non-therapeutic abortions; 

(2) Promote non-therapeutic abortions;

(3) Contract with any entity that performs or promotes non-therapeutic abortions;

(4) Become or continue to be an affiliate of any entity that performs or promotes non-therapeutic abortions.

Planned Parenthood sued and a district judge affirmed the right of that company to suckle at the public teat for as long as it wished. The State of Ohio appealed and the 6th Circuit ruled decisively in favor of Ohio.

Via the Twitter feed of HotAir colleague Gabriel Malor:

(Link is to Scribd as the court doesn't have the decision up on its webpage yet. Usually up around 1pm.)

— Gabriel Malor (@gabrielmalor) March 12, 2019

The dissenting judges would hold that PP's right to perform abortions is derivative of the right to receive an abortion, and that ceasing to perform abortions would necessarily be an undue burden on women seeking to exercise their right. pic.twitter.com/CWJSoD04Sl

— Gabriel Malor (@gabrielmalor) March 12, 2019

The Ohio Planned Parenthood decision is now up on the 6th Cir. website: https://t.co/1kLh9JE78f

— Gabriel Malor (@gabrielmalor) March 12, 2019

Singificantly, by using non-therapeutic abortions as the wedge, the court cracked wide open the death grip Planned Parenthood has on federal money that is a) fungible and b) lets Planned Parenthood troll for patients using other programs. Now other organizations have a chance to provide those same services without performing abortions.

This is how POLITICO sees it:

A majority of the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday that Ohio can cut state funding to Planned Parenthood because the organization performs abortions, overturning a lower court ruling that blocked the state from stripping about $1.5 million of annual support from the network of clinics.

The case was one of several across the country addressing attempts to cut public dollars to Planned Parenthood and other providers who offer abortions in addition to a range of health care services. The 6th Circuit’s ruling affects six state public health programs in Ohio, but doesn’t touch Medicaid. The Supreme Court in December declined to review a case brought by other Republican-led states seeking to cut off Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood and other reproductive health organizations that offer abortions. More than 20 states additionally have brought legal challenges over a Trump administration rule cutting tens of millions of dollars in Title X funding from Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers.

Right now, as Malor says, there is no circuit split and Planned Parenthood may not appeal because of the nationwide ramifications if they lose in the Supreme Court.

Six of the seventeen judges on the Sixth are now Trump appointees but only four of them were appointed in time to participate in this decision. The other two judges voted with the minority in this decision. It is not hard to see how this could have gone from an 11-6 against Planned Parenthood to a 10-7 for them. It always was difficult to take seriously the Never Trump people who thought “but Gorsuch” was a killer comeback to anyone who said something complimentary of Trump. Day by day we are seeing that the contribution made by Trump to conservatism in appointing at least to Supreme Court justices and dozens of appeals court judges far exceeds anything the Bulwark crowd will ever accomplish.

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