The Supreme Court gave a small win to Planned Parenthood in New Hampshire and the Obama administration Monday, by refusing to take up a challenge by New Hampshire Right to Life to try to get the organization's documents describing the medical standards, guidelines, and fee schedule for clinics.
New Hampshire Right to Life was actually suing the federal Department of Health and Human Services for the material. Since 2011, HHS has been directly funding Planned Parenthood in New Hampshire with Title X family planning funds. In most states, and in New Hampshire before 2011, the money goes to the state government, which then distributes the funds. State officials in New Hampshire decided that this family planning money might just be subsidizing abortion, and returned the money to Washington. In return, HHS started providing the grants directly and required that Planned Parenthood submit the aforementioned files.
Later that year, New Hampshire Right to Life asked HHS, under the Freedom of Information Act, to disclose the papers that had been filed, as well as internal HHS documents describing its plan to go ahead with the grants. When HHS refused, the group sued. HHS turned over about 2,500 pages but withheld some of the Planned Parenthood filings under Exemption 4 [of the FOIA].
A federal district court judge and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit upheld HHS’s refusal.
Now the Supreme Court has upheld that refusal, prompting a predictable dissent from Justices Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia.