Minnesota Joins Lawsuit Over Trump Abortion Restrictions
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) -- Minnesota has joined with 20 other states in a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration's restrictions on federal family planning funds.
The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Oregon. It claims the restrictions are illegal and unconstitutional.
Attorney General Keith Ellison said in a statement Tuesday that the affected programs, including Planned Parenthood and the St. Paul-Ramsey County Public Health Department, served more than 55,000 Minnesotans in 2017. They got $2.2 million in federal money last year and $3.2 million in 2017 to provide family planning and preventive health care to low-income individuals.
The Trump administration's restrictions bar taxpayer-funded family planning clinics from referring patients to abortion providers, and from being housed in the same place as abortion providers. Planned Parenthood says complying would be all but impossible.
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