Norton v. Rocky Mountain Planned Parenthood

Description: Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys representing the former executive director of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment filed suit in state court over the state’s alleged misuse of more than $14 million in taxpayer dollars. The lawsuit contends that the funding Colorado has provided to Rocky Mountain Planned Parenthood violates a voter-approved state constitutional provision that prohibits direct or indirect public taxpayer subsidies for abortion.

Thursday, Jan 14, 2016

The following quote may be attributed to Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Michael J. Norton regarding the Colorado Court of Appeals decision Thursday in Norton v. Rocky Mountain Planned Parenthood:

“American taxpayer money should go to fund local community health centers, not to subsidize a scandal-ridden, billion-dollar abortion business like Planned Parenthood. This couldn’t be more true for Coloradans, who adopted a state constitutional provision that expressly prohibits the direct or indirect funding of abortions. The lower court should not have dismissed this case on a technicality because even it agreed that $14 million of taxpayer funds flowed from state government agencies to Planned Parenthood and thus, presumptively, in violation of the voter-approved amendment. We had hoped the Court of Appeals would have recognized that, but since it did not, we are discussing the possibility of appeal.”

Alliance Defending Freedom is an alliance-building, non-profit legal organization that advocates for the right of people to freely live out their faith.

# # # | Ref. 40772