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SALT LAKE CITY — A federal judge has signed an order preventing the state from stripping funding from the Planned Parenthood Association of Utah.
The preliminary injunction, issued by U.S. District Judge Dee Benson, stops Gov. Gary Herbert, Utah Department of Health Executive Director Joseph Miner or any other state employee from defunding or denying funds to the reproductive health organization on "impermissible constitutional grounds."
Those grounds include Utah Planned Parenthood's advocacy for legal abortion, affiliation with the national Planned Parenthood organization and association with other groups that advocate for legal abortion.
The order came as the result of a 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in July that overturned a decision by Judge Clark Waddoups denying Planned Parenthood the injunction. Waddoups has since recused himself from the case without explanation, and the court reassigned it to Benson.
Utah Planned Parenthood sued the state after Herbert directed the health department to withhold federal pass-through dollars to the organization last year. His order came after the release of several secretly recorded videos purporting to show national Planned Parenthood officials bargaining over the price of aborted fetal tissue. Planned Parenthood called the videos highly edited and misleading.
Benson's order does not require the state to continue contracts, renew contracts or issue new contracts to Planned Parenthood. However, if the state defunds, declines to renew or does not issue a contract, it must give the organization a legitimate reason in writing 30 days ahead of time.
"Such basis cannot include unproven allegations against the national Planned Parenthood organization or its affiliates or the plaintiff's provision of or advocacy for legal abortion," according to the order.
The appeals court found that Herbert "more likely than not" saw the videos as an opportunity to punish and take public action against Planned Parenthood.
The funds in question total about $374,000 in grants from the federal government for two sex education programs, a sexually transmitted diseases testing program, and an STD tracking database over fiscal years 2015 and 2016.
By law, state funds cannot be used for abortions.
The health department has signed contracts with Planned Parenthood through September and has said it would extend them on a short-term basis until the lawsuit is resolved.
