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SALT LAKE CITY — State attorneys have challenged the Planned Parenthood Association of Utah's claims that its constitutional rights were violated, arguing in a response filed Friday that the state has "unbridled discretion" to pull its contracts with the reproductive health organization.
The memorandum from the Utah Attorney General's Office clarified the state's stance and raised the question of whether the issue is a contract dispute or a constitutional debate.
"Utah relied on explicit contract rights to terminate the four contracts in dispute," the document argues, pointing to provisions in the contracts that allow the state to terminate the contract with 30 days notice.
Representatives from the Planned Parenthood Association of Utah could not be reached for comment Friday.
The association sued Gov. Gary Herbert and Joseph Miner, executive director of the state health department, on Sept. 28 after Herbert issued a directive to state agencies to stop passing federal funds to Planned Parenthood last month.
The Utah Department of Health was set to terminate or allow four contracts worth about $273,000 to expire when Planned Parenthood sued.
The funds were slated for two sex education programs, an STD tracking program and an STD testing program.
In the memorandum, the Utah Attorney General's Office argued U.S. District Judge Clark Waddoups committed "legal errors" in siding with the reproductive health organization in an emergency hearing Sept. 29. At that hearing, Waddoups ordered the state to temporarily resume funding Planned Parenthood pending future hearings.
Related:
Gov. Herbert instructs state to stop distributing federal funds to Planned Parenthood
Gov. Gary Herbert instructed state agencies to stop distributing federal funds to the Planned Parenthood Association of Utah on Friday afternoon in a decision that took state lawmakers and Planned Parenthood officials by surprise. (Photo: KSL File)Similar lawsuits are also working their way through the courts in Louisiana, Alabama and Arkansas, where Planned Parenthood affiliates are fighting directives in those states that sought to cut off state Medicaid reimbursements.
Planned Parenthood Association of Utah attorney Peggy Tomsic has argued that Herbert's order violates the organization's free speech, freedom of association and equal protection rights by discriminating against the organization for being an abortion provider.
In the memorandum filed Friday, attorneys for Herbert and Miner argued that the state has the power to terminate agreements with a government contractor at-will, much in the same way the government can fire an employee.
The attorneys, trying to clarify the governor's motivations, said it was not his opposition to abortion but his belief that the national Planned Parenthood organization may have violated federal law by profiting from fetal tissue that motivated his decision.
"Whatever might be said about the act of selling fetal tissue for money, that act … is not constitutionally protected," the document reads.
In its lawsuit, Planned Parenthood noted that it does not participate in any program that provides fetal tissue for scientific research.
Daphne Chen is a reporter for the Deseret News and KSL.com. Contact her at dchen@deseretnews.com.
