On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle, permanently blocked part of Florida’s latest attempt to cut funding for Planned Parenthood clinics in the state. The law was signed in by Governor Rick Scott and would have gone into effect in June, taking an astonishing $500,000 from funding for Planned Parenthood every year.
Judge Hinkle has ruled that parts of this law that cut funding for Planned Parenthood unconstitutional, and with good reason. Not only does the law completely fly in the face of Roe v. Wade, and make it harder for Florida’s Planned Parenthood locations to provide completely legal abortions, it cuts funding for other essential services the clinic provides.
The thing Conservatives don’t seem to understand about Planned Parenthood is that it’s not just for abortions. Planned Parenthood deals with every aspect of reproductive health, from distributing condoms and birth control, to STI and cancer screenings.
The clinic also provides education on how to prevent many health conditions like STIs, hepatitis, and even scabies. Even if Conservatives like to pretend genitals don’t exist, reproductive health is still important and will continue to affect everyone in this country, regardless whether the funding for these essential services is cut off or not.
In an unfortunate note, some parts of the new Florida law will still be going through, even after the ruling by Judge Hinkle. These parts of the law include a provision that would require any doctor who would perform an abortion to also have admitting privileges at a hospital nearby.
This kind of formal affiliation is hard to acquire and would make it extremely difficult for doctors who perform abortions at Planned Parenthood clinics to continue performing them.
When the office of Governor Rick Scott was contacted about this ruling, a spokeswoman for the governor only had this to say:
“We are reviewing it.”
h/t to Huffington Post
