Planned Parenthood seeks restraining order to block new Indiana law that cut off funding
UPDATE, 1:40p: Shock, the judge has decided not to issue a restraining order as she mulls the case!
10:34a: Yesterday Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels (pictured above) signed a new law that makes his state the 1st in the country to cut off federal funding to Planned Parenthood. The law specifies the state cannot enter into contracts with businesses that provide abortions, excluding hospitals hospitals and ambulatory surgical centers. Obviously, PP is the target.
This amounts to roughly $3 million annually, or 20% of PPIN’s budget, according to its president, Betty Cockrum. PPIN owns 28 clinics, 4 of which commit abortions.
The new law took effect immediately, but PPIN and the ACLU likewise immediately filed a motion in court to block it. US District Judge Tanya Walton Pratt (pictured right) is expected to rule on their request for a restraining order today. Pratt is an Obama appointee, so don’t hold your breath on the outcome of this 1st legal step of many. At issue is Medicaid funding. The other side’s argument, according to the Los Angeles Times:
PP says the measure is unconstitutional and violates federal law. It says 22,000 patients could be left without access to Pap tests and other non-abortion services.
More from HuffPo:
ACLU of IN Legal Director Ken Falk said… the public funding has nothing to do with abortion and is used to provide necessary medical services, primarily to women.
“Family planning dollars fund preventive health services that are critical to low-income and vulnerable women and their families,” Falk said. “It is unlawful, unnecessary and cruel to deny these populations health services that they desperately need.”
Oh puleeze. Step back: PP is claiming a state violates federal law if not funding PP for low-income women’s health services? As if PP’s the only one? Never mind doctors offices, Federally Qualified Health Clinics, county health departments, or immediate care clinics. This is IN’s argument, according to USA Today:
Daniels, though, said his administration reviewed women’s access to services “and can confirm that all non-abortion services, whether family planning or basic women’s health, will remain readily available in every one of our 92 counties. In addition, I have ordered the Family and Social Services Administration to see that Medicaid recipients receive prompt notice of nearby care options. We will take any actions necessary to ensure that vital medical care is, if anything, more widely available than before.”
IN’s new law is not only great on its face, it affords pro-lifers a teachable moment to dispel PP’s pretense that it is the only entity that provides low income women’s healthcare. It most certainly is not.
In fact, PP is a woefully inadequate healthcare provider.
Think about it. PPIN only has 28 clinics throughout the entire state. And they only serve a very small segment of women’s healthcare needs, whereas the other entities I mentioned provide wholistic healthcare, not just for women but for their entire families.
If a woman goes to PP for a pap smear and has any other nongyne complaint or need whatsoever – earache, cold, pinkeye, ingrown toenail, etc. – PP can’t help. But the others can.
[Top photo via the Huffington Post]
Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
PP’s argument is just silly and outlandish. “If you don’t give us money, women won’t have anywhere to go and they’ll die of breast cancer, even though we don’t provide mammograms to prevent that!” It’s as if one single convenience store/gas station goes out of business and then says the whole state can’t find anywhere to fuel up and people will be stranded. Just nonsense.
Simple solution, PP. Stop doing abortions and your funding will be restored. After all, if abortion is such a miniscule part of your business (as you keep claiming), then it should be no problem at all to stop doing them. If these “necessary medical services” can ONLY be provided by you, surely these services are more important than doing abortions, right?
JoAnna,
LOVE your plan!!
What nonsense claims PP is making! Abortion is murder, plain and simple. I’ve seen the videos of aborted fetuses, and how anyone can say that isn’t a human child is beyond my comprehension.
God made life, all life. It should be left to Him to decide who lives and who dies.
This reminds me of a funny/sad thing that happened to one of my pro-choice friends a few months ago. She’d been fond of saying how PP offered “health care” until one day, when between jobs and without health coverage, she was struggling with a bad chest cold. She announced on her facebook page that she was going first thing in the morning to PP for “help.” We all know what was going to happend, but I didn’t have the heart to comment on her post. Sure enough, around lunchtime, she posted that PP had turned her away, and they weren’t too nice about it. So she had to go to a county health care provider for her bronchitis. It was hard not to comment a “LOL told you so!” but I managed to refrain. See? Without any arguing from me, she found out first hand that PP doesn’t offer health care, only weak Pills, flimsy condoms, and dead babies on demand.
There are always some really good comments on here. I wish there as a “like” button for the comments. Laura, JoAnna, Carla, and Angela B…right on!!
There are over 800 Medicaid providers in Indiana who will not be affected by this defunding law. And “ninek” has it right–PP is the lousiest health care provider for women in any state of the union. Let’s all work to expose the NEW PP LIE of “Women’s Largest Health Care Provider” that is being shoveled into the mass media right now.
So, if you are an agency that currently receives tax dollars, you believe that you are entitled to receive that money in perpetuity?
Give it up, PP.
I love how you guys miss the numbers right in front of your face… PPIN has 28 clinics in total out of which only 4 perform abortions, and those 4 don’t do abortions every day.
By cutting off funding you are hurting thousands of women who do not have health insurance and cannot afford out of pocket medical expenses, all because you do not agree with a federal law… So your stance in these posts is for us to ignore a federal law that guarantees women’s rights and then you will go back to helping lower income women get low cost healthcare? How elitist is that? If you agree to our moral guidelines we will help you, but if you agree with the U.S. Supreme Court you’re on your own? So laws only apply to lesser people because you have a higher moral authority and judge that no one else can see or verify so we will just have to take your word on that part? What gives you the right to cast shame on anyone else for anything they do? I thought there was something in the bible about NOT judging other people because you are not qualified? So, how do we get from there to “young unmarried pregnant women are sluts or murders” and “god hates fa*s”? I thought we would all be judged before god individually for our own actions of which only god knows all of them? So, where do you get this moral authority to do gods job for him/her? Are you the Pope? All I see is a group of people who think they are better and more moral than another group of people, well that sounds evil to me. I would say it sounds a lot like the moral justification the Nazi’s used in 1945 to pass judgment on other groups of people. Oh and fetuses are not people nor do they have an opinion on the subject of abortion.
If you know of a fetus that would like to post its opinion on abortion in any forum I would be more than happy to read what it thinks on the subject… until then I will be listening to the majority of American women, our federal government, the President of the United States, The First Lady, my wife, my mother, and the U.S. Supreme Court on the subject of abortion.
@MaryBeth: That’s exactly what I’ve thought this whole time. The idea that you can force any entity, even a government, to pay money to an organization to which it owes nothing simply because that organization says that they should is…problematic, at best.
@Alice, I think the judge’s decision to not issue even a temporary restraining order is a good sign that the courts will agree. If the courts were to decide in favor of PP, what does that mean to every other publicly funded organization? Nobody ever gets their funding cut? Ever?
Biggz
Cutting federal funding from PP will not leave anyone without help. They are not the only healthcare provider out there. Regardless, no one should HAVE TO pay for something that goes against their beliefs. PP is an abortion provider– plain and simple– whether they all perform abortions or not, they are linked to abortion.
What is, in fact, unconstitutional is the requirement for taxpayers to HAVE TO pay and have their money go toward something that conflicts with their beliefs. That’s one part of it.
God says not to judge. But I fear you may take it too literally. How are we supposed to make decisions or decide what is appropriate for our children if we block out our judgement? The judement we use is not to judge other people. The judgement we use guides us in recognizing what is right and what is wrong. We find that abortion is wrong, and yet we still pray for the people involved in it. Don’t you see? We aren’t damning them to Hell. We’re praying for them.
Why do we see abortion as wrong? Well, the unborn are human. Yes, you claim that they are not people. But think about this: would you consider a child born at 20 weeks a human? A 20-week-old child is usually still found in the mother’s womb, but there are children who have been born at this stage. If not human, what are they? Do we need to wait for the “9 months” to end before we can start calculating his or her birthday? Whatever stage a fetus is at is exactly that– a stage. Toddlers are at a stage; Teenagers are at a stage; Adults are at a stage. We will never be a “fully developed” human because we are constantly changing, just like that fetus.
The only one doing “god’s job” are those who find abortion acceptable. The only one qualified to take away an individual’s life is God. You brought up the Nazis. You could easily say that the abortionists are the Nazis. They both give themselves the authority to decide who lives and who dies.
You ask for a response from a fetus, and you evidently don’t expect an answer from one. Do you expect one from a 1-week-old baby? Do you expect one from a mentally disabled individual who has difficulty with communication? Are they not human? It’s all relevant.
Have you seen an abortion? Have you seen an ultrasound of an abortion? The response from the fetus is actually found there. As the abortionist starts the “procedure”, the fetus senses something wrong and FLAILS around in PANIC. What more of a response could anyone ask for? And if you really want to talk, talk to survivors of abortion, they’re out there. Gianna Jessen is someone to check out most definitely.