Colorado Supreme Court Violates State Constitution to Makes Taxpayer Fund Planned Parenthood

State   |   Micaiah Bilger   |   Jan 22, 2018   |   7:15PM   |   Denver, Colorado

A move by the Colorado Supreme Court on Monday will allow the state to continue to force taxpayers to fund the abortion chain Planned Parenthood.

The AP reports the state high court dismissed a lawsuit alleging that the abortion chain received more than $14 million taxpayer dollars in violation of the state constitution.

Filed in 2013 by former Colorado Lt. Gov. Jane Norton, the lawsuit argued that Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains should not receive state tax dollars because they subsidize abortions, according to the report.

The lawsuit cited a voter-approved amendment to the Colorado Constitution, which states, “No public funds shall be used by the State of Colorado, its agencies or political subdivisions to pay or otherwise reimburse, either directly or indirectly, any person, agency or facility for the performance of any induced abortion.”

Here’s more from the report:

In a decision released Monday, a majority of the state Supreme Court didn’t agree. The justices said the constitution bars Colorado from using public funds specifically in return for performing abortions.

A Denver District Court judge first dismissed the suit in August 2014 and the Colorado Court of Appeals upheld that decision in January 2016.

“No one is above the law, including Colorado politicians who are violating our state’s constitution by continuing to fund Planned Parenthood’s abortion activities with state taxpayer dollars,” said Michael Norton, senior counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom, previously. “The state acknowledges that about $1.4 million of state taxpayer money flowed from state government agencies through Planned Parenthood to its abortion affiliate. The lower court seems to have agreed with that but dismissed the case on a technicality.”

In 1984, Colorado voters approved the Abortion Funding Prohibition Amendment and later rejected an initiative to repeal it.

The Colorado Department of Public Health audited Rocky Mountain Planned Parenthood and its affiliate Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains Services Corporation in 2001 and subsequently ended funding to them after finding that state funds were indirectly subsidizing their abortion operations. State officials later ignored that determination and resumed funding, claiming that the funds only consisted of federal taxpayer dollars.

As the lawsuit explains, “since about January 15, 2009 to the present date [2013], the Colorado Government Defendants and other Colorado government agencies have provided approximately $14 million in public funds to Defendant Rocky Mountain Planned Parenthood and thereby have, in violation of Colorado’s Abortion Funding Prohibition Amendment, directly or indirectly subsidized Planned Parenthood Services’ abortion operations.”

Planned Parenthood is the largest abortion business in America, aborting approximately 320,000 unborn babies every year. Its most recent annual report showed a record income of $1.46 billion, with about half a billion dollars coming from taxpayers.