The conservative assault on Planned Parenthood that began a year ago when the Republican-led House of Representatives tried to cut off any federal aid to the organization has been followed by a slew of similar attacks at the state level. The latest came this week in North Carolina.

On Monday night, the Republican-led State Legislature voted to override the recent decision by North Carolina’s Democratic governor, Bev Perdue, to veto a flawed budget that stripped financing for Planned Parenthood. Last year, the Legislature also overrode a budget veto, in the process enacting provisions to disqualify Planned Parenthood for continued government support.

Those provisions were blocked on sound constitutional and statutory grounds by a federal judge, who found, as courts consistently have, that a state may not target a particular health provider because it advocates for abortion rights and provides abortions using its own money.

To try to get around that ruling, this year’s budget does not refer to Planned Parenthood by name. Instead, it achieves the same bad result by preventing the state’s Health and Human Services Department from contracting with “private providers” of family planning services. Planned Parenthood is the only outfit that fits that category, a ploy unlikely to fool a court.

If left to stand, the cut in financing would take away roughly $200,000 from Planned Parenthood clinics in the state. It would not reduce the number of abortions (they are not financed by state money) and could actually increase abortions by making affordable contraception less available. What is certain is that women would be hurt, and Planned Parenthood’s ability to provide birth control, cancer screenings, testing for sexually transmitted diseases and other health services for low-income clients would be badly impaired.

Overburdened state-run health offices are not an adequate substitute, but the politicians behind the cut clearly don’t care.