What a welcome relief and wonderful victory for our patients!

Late Friday, U.S. District Judge James A. Beaty Jr. issued a preliminary injunction against the funding ban enacted by the Republican controlled NC Legislature.

We argued that the ban is unconstitutional for four reasons;  violation of the Supremacy Clause, violation of the First Amendment,  violation of the Equal Protection Clause, and violation of the prohibition against Bills of Attainder.

“Indeed, at the hearing..counsel for the Defendant acknowledged that PPCNC had been approved for these grants prior to the passage of Section 10.19 [the funding ban] and that the funding was available to Defendant Cansler for distribution.”

The judge found that we substainally proved our likely success on all four points.  You can read the full 35 page decision by Judge Beatty, which includes references to previous relevant cases and an in-depth analysis of each point. 

One thing is clear, the court expects the state to restore Planned Parenthood’s funding immediately,  ”If Defendant Cansler takes action that is still a result of reliance on or enforcement of Section 10.19 (the ban), either explicitly or implicitly, further proceedings would be appropriate..”

As the Durham Herald Sun stated in their editorial, NC’s Poor Planning,

We are relieved, but we are also disturbed that the people drafting law in North Carolina are either so short-sighted that they couldn’t see the probable outcome of their actions or so obsessed with their position on reproductive freedom that they would rather go to court (wasting taxpayer dollars with what seems to be an unwinnable case) than focus on the biggest issues confronting the state: jobs, tax reform and how to pay for education.

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