Alabama, like many states controlled by the Republican Party, recently attempted to defund Planned Parenthood when now-discredited videos were released which purported to show that the women’s healthcare provider had accepted money for providing fetal tissue for research.

But U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson has now dealt the powers-that-be in Alabama a stinging rebuke for their efforts to shut down Planned Parenthood, issuing a 66-page ruling that calls the GOP out for their continued War on Women.  Judge Thompson wrote that Alabama had failed to identify a single legal reason why they could or should cut funding to Planned Parenthood. He also wrote that by attempting to shut down the clinics, Republican lawmakers were violating the “free-choice-of-provider” provision of the Medicaid Act.

Thompson also noted that in closing these clinics, women would have significantly fewer options for healthcare in the state, and that Governor Robert Bentley’s administration had failed to cite a single reason for why they had taken the action against Planned Parenthood.

The judge also pointed out that none of the clinics in Alabama that do perform abortions–and there are very few of them–do not even participate in “fetal-tissue donations,” writing:

“The parties do not dispute that no employee or representative of Planned Parenthood Southeast is depicted in these videos and that PPSE does not participate in fetal-tissue donation, and never has.”

So yet again we see a judge making it clear that state efforts to withdraw money from an important provider of women’s healthcare will be ruled illegal and cannot proceed. No doubt this will enrage the GOP and only lead to increased calls for more legislative action against Planned Parenthood.

But here is the bottom line that no Republican can possibly hope to deny: They will to any lengths to make it impossible for women to exercise their Constitutionally guaranteed right to choose. Even if that means lying and attempting to smear an organization that only seeks to help provide much-needed services to women across the country.

This article was originally published by the same author at LiberalAmerica.org.