The U.S. Supreme Court has halted an anti-abortion group's attempts to gain access to an internal documents from Planned Parenthood.

The Washington Post reports that the court declined to review an appeal court's decision to deny New Hampshire Right to Life the right to the documents under federal law. According to the Wall Street Journal, New Hampshire Right to Life previously sued the Department of Health and Human Services under the Freedom of Information Act in order to obtain Planned Parenthood's operational manual, among other materials.

The First U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston threw out the suit, saying that the document was covered by an exception in the act, withholding disclosure of "trade secrets and commercial or financial information obtained from a person and privileged or confidential."

"All sorts of nonprofits -- hospitals, colleges, and even the National Football League -- engage in commerce as that term is ordinarily understood," said court Judge William J. Kayatta Jr, via the New York Times.

The case follows a 2011 decision by New Hampshire to cease state funding towards Planned Parenthood of Northern New England over public concerns that money was used to subsidize abortions. The group turned instead to the federal government, and was granted funds to continue operations in New Hampshire.

Justices Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia objected to the Supreme Court's decision, with Justice Thomas arguing that the exception stated in the Freedom of Information Act should be better clarified.

According to Justice Thomas, the federal appeals courts "have embraced varying versions of a convoluted test that rests on judicial speculation about whether disclosure will cause competitive harm to the entity from which the information was obtained."

"Americans are already being forced to fund Planned Parenthood, which has become the subject of numerous investigations," said lawyer Casey Mattox, who represented New Hampshire Right to Life. "At the very least, the government must be transparent about this money."