Planned Parenthood goes to court over North Carolina cuts

WILMINGTON, North Carolina (Reuters) - Planned Parenthood asked a sovereign justice on Thursday to block enforcement of part of North Carolina's bill that bars extending state funds to a women's health provider because it performs abortions.In a suit filed in a U.S. District Court in Greensboro, Planned Parenthood of Central North Carolina sought an injunction to halt enforcement of bill provisions that deny a organization state and sovereign funds used to subsidize family planning services and provide teen pregnancy prevention programs.One of two Planned Parenthood affiliates operating in a state, a organisation received about $212,000 of state and sovereign funds in a year ended June 30 to fund programs at its clinics in Fayetteville, Chapel Hill and Raleigh.During a year, a three clinics provided family planning and reproductive health exams to almost 7,000 women, Planned Parenthood said.Planned Parenthood Health Systems, a other North Carolina affiliate, receives $32,000 of state funds to provide long-acting contraceptives to low-income women such as IUD's and $60,000 in Teen Pregnancy Prevention Initiative funding.Spokeswoman Melissa Reed said they saw 17,407 patients last year, 63 percent of which had no insurance or were on Medicaid.The two affiliates received $454,241 last year from Medicaid, a program not affected by a state bill provision cutting funding to a group, Planned Parenthood of Central North Carolina (PPCNC) Field Manager Alison Kiser said in an email.In a press recover announcing a suit, PPCNC chief executive Janet Colm said: "This is a first time in North Carolina's history that a single health care provider has been carved out in a bill and banned from requesting for competitive grants from a state."In singling out Planned Parenthood, a suit argues, a North Carolina bill violates sovereign law and a constitutional rights of Planned Parenthood.Specifically, a suit asks a justice to enjoin Lanier Cansler, Secretary of a North Carolina Department of Health and Human services, from enf! orcing p rovisions of a state bill defunding Planned Parenthood.Governor Bev Perdue said a case was not a usually justice challenge to a budget, citing a legal review over its impact on low-performing school districts."I don't know how many lawsuits will happen, but that's not a right answer for me," she said, speaking in Winston-Salem."My answer is for people in this state to examine what's important for them ... and try to say, 'We want investments in our future and in our people.'"There was no response on Thursday afternoon from a leaders of a General Assembly.(Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Peter Bohan)