A federal appeals court on Tuesday ruled that Kansas can strip two Planned Parenthood clinics of federal funding while the organization proceeds with its lawsuit against the state, according to the Associated Press.
Planned Parenthood sued Kansas after it passed a law that requires federal family planning money to first go to hospitals and public health departments, leaving little funding for clinics like Planned Parenthood. The organization argues that the state is targeting them for advocating abortion rights.
The two Kansas clinics that will be stripped of federal funding for the time being do not provide abortions. Only one Planned Parenthood location in Kansas provides abortions, which does not receive federal family planning funding.
In 2011 U.S. District Court J. Thomas Marten blocked the Kansas law, arguing that the law unfairly punished Planned Parenthood for advocating for abortion rights. He had ordered Kansas to fund the clinics in the meantime.
