Gov. Jan Brewer continued her anti-abortion efforts late Friday, signing controversial legislation to keep any of the federal family-planning funding Arizona gets from going to Planned Parenthood.
A legal challenge is likely.
HB 2800 establishes an order for dividing up public funds for family planning. Top priority goes to government-run health-care facilities, followed by hospitals, rural health clinics and private doctors.
It bars funding from going to anyone who performs abortions or operates a facility where abortions are performed, a provision Rep. Justin Olson, R-Mesa, sponsor of the legislation, acknowledged is aimed at Planned Parenthood.
Brewer’s action comes even as a federal judge has barred Texas from using a similar regulation to defund Planned Parenthood there. Brewer’s spokesman, Matthew Benson, said she is not concerned.
“The governor is confident of the constitutionality of this law and believes it will be upheld,” he said.
Olson acknowledged the Texas court ruling, but he said that is a “unique situation” and the Arizona law is sufficiently different. Still, he anticipates a lawsuit.
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