RALEIGH One of North Carolina's dual Planned Parenthood affiliates filed a sovereign lawsuit Thursday to nullify part of a new state budget that cuts it off from sovereign or state funds for family planning.The budget written by Republicans in control of a General Assembly for a first time in more than a century states that Planned Parenthood as well as its affiliates are forbidden from receiving any contracts or grants from a state health agency. The lawsuit filed in Greensboro's sovereign court by Planned Parenthood of Central North Carolina contends a group is being punished for its abortion-rights advocacy, saying that violates its free-speech protections.Planned Parenthood Health Systems Inc., which is not a party to a lawsuit, operates clinics in Charlotte, Greensboro, Raleigh, Wilmington, Winston-Salem as well as Asheville. The group received $186,000 in federal, state as well as local funds last year, according to state Department of Health as well as Human Services.We are very supportive of this lawsuit as well as very hopeful that it will succeed as well as help all of us, including a Asheville clinic, said Melissa Reed, orator for Planned Parenthood Health Systems in North Carolina.We want the patients in Western North Carolina to know that that there will be no reduction of services in Asheville as well as that we will continue standing up for them whatever it takes.Reed said that if efforts by a Planned Parenthood affiliates are not successful, a group will consider filing litigation of its own.We are not going to behind down as well as we will continue standing up for the clients, she said.The organization is barred by law from using public money to perform abortions as well as uses a government contracts to provide family planning or teen pregnancy prevention services, yet is being singled out because Planned Parenthood supports abortion rights, a lawsuit said. Efforts to cut off funds to Planned Parenthood affiliates in North Carolina are similar to those in Kansas as well as Indiana, wh! ich were also met with sovereign lawsuits, a group's attorneys said.
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