CA ATTORNEY GENERAL BECERRA FILES BRIEF TO DEFEND WOMEN’S HEALTH AND MEDICAL SERVICES
East County News Service
April 8, 2017 (Sacramento) -- California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, along with 15 fellow attorneys general, filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the case Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio et al v. Hodges before the Sixth Circuit United States Court of Appeals on Thursday. The amicus brief defends a woman's right to access essential healthcare services, including reproductive health services, and a qualified healthcare provider's right to participate in offering publicly-funded health services to all people.
Specifically, the brief challenges an Ohio law which excludes qualified healthcare providers that offer services to women, including abortion services, from participating in publicly-funded health programs unrelated to abortion – including breast and cervical cancer prevention programs.
“A woman, not politicians, should decide what is in her best interest when it comes to her health. There is no rational basis for a state to deny women the right to choose among qualified health care providers,” said Attorney General Becerra. “And no arbitrary state law should exclude those qualified health care providers from offering essential services to anyone who needs them. I urge the Court to find this misguided state law unconstitutional.”
Attorney General Becerra joined the attorneys general of New York, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawai'i, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Mexico, Oregon, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and the District of Columbia in filing the amicus brief.
A copy of the brief is at oag.ca.gov/news