Arizona Bans Funding to Planned Parenthood

Gov. Jan Brewer yesterday signed into law a bill to cut off Planned Parenthood's access to taxpayer money funneled through the state for non-abortion services. Arizona already bars use of public money for abortions except to save the life of the mother. But anti-abortion legislators and other supporters of the bill say the broader prohibition is needed to ensure no public money indirectly supports abortion services.

Planned Parenthood Arizona claims a funding ban would interrupt its preventive health care and family planning services for nearly 20,000 women served by the organization's clinics. The organization says it will consider a legal challenge. (A similar law in Texas is in the same boat.) The measure targeting funding for Planned Parenthood for non-abortion services was one of several approved by Arizona's Republican-led Legislature related to contentious reproductive health care issues this session. (More Arizona stories.)