Social conservatives launched a new and sweeping effort last year to use state laws to cut off federal funding to Planned Parenthood.

It's not working.

The push got a lot of attention when it began, in the wake of conservatives' equally aggressive — and also unsuccessful — attempt to defund Planned Parenthood through Congress's spending bills.

So far, six states have passed laws that seek to defund Planned Parenthood on their own — and the courts have blocked all six.

The most recent loss came in Indiana, which was also the first state to pass an anti-Planned Parenthood low. Indiana's 2011 statute set the tone for the others that followed: It said funding for the state's Medicaid program could not flow to healthcare providers that also provide abortion...

...Courts have all or part of blocked similar laws in Arizona, Kansas, North Carolina, Tennessee and Texas...

...Overall, the losses in the courts are the third setback in a three-pronged effort to restrict Planned Parenthood. Conservatives also began pushing private groups to cut off their grant money to Planned Parenthood after failing to cut off the organization in Congress.

They briefly succeeded when Susan G. Komen for the Cure changed its grant criteria to exclude Planned Parenthood. But the move sparked a backlash that forced Komen to restore the funding and was also an enormous boon to Planned Parenthood's fundraising.