Judge Jeffrey Sutton, who authored the majority opinion, said that Ohio had no constitutional requirement to provide money to any private organization, Planned Parenthood or otherwise.
"The state may choose to not subsidize constitutionally protected activities," wrote Sutton. "Just as it has no obligation to provide a platform for an individual's free speech," the state has "no obligation to pay for a woman's abortion."
Planned Parenthood operates 26 clinics in Ohio, and will lose about $1.5 million in state funds as a result of this decision.
Catherine Glenn Foster, the president and CEO of Americans United for Life, told CNA that she agreed with the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals that Planned Parenthood has "no constitutional 'right' to offer women abortions, nor to receive public taxpayer dollars for doing so."
"I applaud the court's strong denunciation of Planned Parenthood for claiming to represent the best interests of women when it advocates for unlimited abortion, as if that were either a health-based or justice-minded approach to the gift of human life," said Foster.