Arizona: Planned Parenthood Suing Defunding Law

Arizona will be the new arena for the Planned Parenthood vs conservative Republicans fight.

Planned Parenthood is suing to block a law defunding its health clinics because it also performs abortions. The organization says the law, which is set to go into effect Aug. 2, could leave thousands of low-income women without access to cancer screenings and birth control. Planned Parenthood, which has won injunctions in five states with similar laws, says it is fighting in court and in legislatures in nearly every state in the country.

“The Republican Party leadership is on a crusade to end birth-control access in America,” charges the president of Planned Parenthood Action Fund. But the issue wasn’t always so partisan, notes Reuters. The wife of conservative icon Barry Goldwater was a co-founder of Phoenix’s Planned Parenthood in the 1930s and Goldwater himself arranged for an illegal abortion for his teenage daughter in the ’50s. “To see the funding be taken away—it ‘s just ignorance; it’s unbelievable,” says Goldwater’s granddaughter, a trustee for Planned Parenthood in Arizona.