Indiana\'s Move To Defund Planned Parenthood Reaches Impasse

Indiana's plan to deny Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood has reached an apparent dead end.

The U.S. Supreme Court late last month declined to hear an appeal of the state's attempt to cut off funding for Planned Parenthood because the non-profit group performs abortions. The 2011 law had been enjoined by U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Walton Pratt, an appointee of President Barack Obama who serves in the Southern District of Indiana in Indianapolis.

Last week, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services also rejected an administrative appeal by Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller to continue the funding ban.

“Although the Supreme Court chose not to accept Indiana’s case for its next term, we are monitoring other challenges to similar laws in other states that are working their way through other federal circuit appeals courts,” Zoeller said. “So there may be another opportunity to assert our legal position through amicus briefs to the Supreme Court that Medicaid dollars should not indirectly subsidize the payroll and overhead expenses of abortion providers.”

Several states have attempted to cut off state and federal funding from Planned Parenthood because it performs abortions, even though it comprises a small portion of the services it provides, which include preventative care such as pap smears, mammograms and contraception. The organization has Medicaid contracts in many states to provide women's health services, primarily in rural areas where medical providers are scarce.

In Texas, the state has cut off funding to Planned Parenthood completely, a loss of about $30 million a year. As a result, 14 of that group's clinics have closed in Texas since 2011. Litigation over the legality of Texas's actions is still wending its way through the federal courts.