Missouri Gov. Mike Parson (R) signed a bill Thursday that kicks Planned Parenthood in the state off Medicaid funding. The bill, which is expected to go into effect later this year, makes it unlawful for any public funds to be sent to any abortion facility or “any affiliate or associate of such abortion facility.

The Senate’s five-member Freedom Caucus has tied passage of the Planned Parenthood defunding measure to a renewal of the Federal Reimbursement Allowance, a tax on medical providers that generates billions of dollars of funding for the state’s Medicaid program.

The new law will go into effect Aug. 28. Planned Parenthood, Democratic lawmakers and health organizations say the ban will cause the most harm to low-income Missourians who rely on the clinics for contraceptives,

Missouri lawmakers have approved a more than $4 billion hospital tax program essential to the state's Medicaid budget

Even though abortion is already illegal in Missouri, this will block any state dollars from any facility associated with performing abortions.

A lawsuit appears likely over the measure, which goes into effect later this year. Missouri Republicans had tried for years to stop any funds from going to abortion providers or their affiliates.

The Republican-led Missouri Legislature voted Wednesday to renew a Medicaid program worth over $4 billion that had found itself in limbo for months.

A set of medical provider taxes that fund a large portion of Missouri’s Medicaid program won quick approval Wednesday in the House, two weeks after it took 41 hours for the bill to pass in the state Senate.

Missouri’s leadership, under Gov. Mike Parson, has taken a definitive stance against Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood, as the Republican Governor signed a bill – HB 2634 – on May 9, reaffirming the state’s commitment to restricting resources to the organization.