By Steve Olafson
OKLAHOMA CITY, Nov 13 (Reuters) - Planned Parenthood asked a
federal judge on Tuesday to stop Oklahoma from blocking it from
participating in a federally funded nutrition program that helps
poor women and children at three clinics in the Tulsa area.
The request, filed in federal court in Oklahoma City,
appeared aimed at combating a move similar to those taken by
conservative Republicans in more than a dozen states over the
past two years to eliminate funding for health services provided
by Planned Parenthood.
The non-profit women's health organization has administered
a federal program called Women, Infants & Children for 18 tears
in Oklahoma's Tulsa County, but the state health department said
in September it would let other clinics provide the services,
blocking Planned Parenthood from taking part.
That decision followed a failed attempt in the
Republican-controlled Oklahoma legislature in May to prohibit
WIC benefits from being administered by Planned Parenthood
because it provides abortion referrals.
The state health department has denied its decision was tied
to Planned Parenthood's position on abortion, citing decreasing
caseloads, high costs and billing questions with the Planned
Parenthood clinics as reasons for its decision. State health
officials were not immediately available for comment.
The Oklahoma Policy Institute, a nonprofit organization that
examines public policy, has called the health department's
reasons inaccurate.
Planned Parenthood attorney Tamya Cox said the group was
seeking the injunction to protect access to nutritional services
for about 3,000 women and children that used the three clinics
in September.
The group's request said that other clinics in Tulsa County
can't absorb the caseload that the Planned Parenthood clinics
handled and that there was a three-month waiting list to make an
appointment at the other clinics.
"Politics should never interfere with a woman's access to
health services - or food for her children," Cox said.
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