Federal government declares Planned Parenthood defunding law to be illegal

The United States Government has sent a letter to the Office of Medicaid Policy and Planning stating that Indiana’s recently passed law which defunds Planned Parenthood is illegal.

The decision was made by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services with the approval of the Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius.

“It is incredibly gratifying to have the federal government confirm what we’ve been saying all along, that HEA 1210 violates federal law,” Becky Cockrum, CEO and President of Planned Parenthood of Indiana, said in a press release.

The law in question, H.E.A. 1210, deals with various abortion matters, but among its most controversial provisions is a section that prevents the state from allocating federal Medicaid money to Planned Parenthood.

Under federal law, it is illegal for Medicaid patients to be denied their choice of health care provider. There are some exceptions to this rule, but the letter states that “family planning providers ... are subject to additional protections” under the law, something that the state Legislative Services Agency indicated to state legislators in an April 19 fiscal impact statement.

It is illegal for federal Medicaid funds to provide abortions. Federal Medicaid law says that Medicaid “beneficiaries may obtain covered services from any qualified provider,” regardless of what other services the provider offers, according to the letter.

When the federal government tells a state that a portion of a law dealing with Medicaid funds is illegal, the state is at risk of losing all Medicaid funding allocated by the federal government if it does not alter the law in question to meet the concerns of the federal government.

Indiana’s Medicaid office has 60 days to appeal the decision.

A federal judge is scheduled to rule on an injunction requested by Planned Parenthood against the law June 6.

-Zach Ammerman