« Ind. Decisions - Oral argument set in Batson challenge | Main | Ind. Decisions - Upcoming oral arguments this week and next »

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Ind. Law - "Murky times for Planned Parenthood: Local clinic joins others in state wary of new law’s consequences"

That is the headline of this story today by Angela Mapes Turner of the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette. Some quotes from the lengthy story:

Last week, Gov. Mitch Daniels signed a law that bars Medicaid patients from receiving health care at Planned Parenthood clinics. House Enrolled Act 1210, which sailed through the Republican-dominated Statehouse, effectively strips about $1.5 million from the organization.

Planned Parenthood and its advocates say the law will result in more, not fewer, abortions because of the resulting loss in family-planning services. They have challenged the law in federal court.

Since 1976, the Hyde Amendment has prohibited federal funds from being used to pay for abortions. None of the 5,580 abortions performed last year at Indiana Planned Parenthood clinics was eligible to be paid for with government dollars.

Supporters of the law say providing Planned Parenthood funds to pay for other services frees up its privately raised resources to be used for abortions.

Cathie Humbarger, executive director of Allen County Right to Life, calls it indirect support.

And although abortions are not offered at many Planned Parenthood clinics – including those in Fort Wayne, Elkhart and Warsaw – the clinics offer abortion referral services and counseling.

“It’s a short step,” she said. * * *

The funding anxiety is new for the Fort Wayne clinic but not for Planned Parenthood of Indiana as a whole.

The organization has battled to keep its funding several times in the past years.

A couple of years ago, many clinics lost Title XX funding, a federal entitlement program, when the distribution was privatized in Indiana.

That prompted Planned Parenthood of Indiana to close six health centers around the state, lay off staff and restructure the entire organization, it said in its most recent annual report. It cut about $2 million from its budget.

The organization faced a challenge on the national level this year; a failed defunding measure pushed by Rep. Mike Pence, R-6th, died in the Senate.

Allen County Right to Life’s Humbarger said Planned Parenthood has survived funding cuts before, and she reiterated the statement Gov. Daniels gave when he signed the bill: Planned Parenthood can resume receiving tax dollars by stopping abortion services or separating them from its main organization.

“If their existence was dependent on tax dollars, they’d be long gone,” Humbarger said.

Humbarger also doesn’t buy the argument that women will fall through the cracks and said that implication is a disservice to the many organizations that provide health care to underserved populations.

The governor has instructed the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration, which oversees Medicaid operations, to ensure Medicaid clients receive prompt notification of nearby care options.

The head of that same state agency, though, cautioned the General Assembly in the days before the bill’s passage that discriminating against Planned Parenthood could jeopardize all federal funds the state receives for family planning, effectively disrupting services for more providers than just Planned Parenthood.

The story has a sidebar with with the stats on Planned Parenthood’s role in health care, on a local level and statewide.

From a companion story today:

Minutes before the Indiana House voted on the bill to defund Planned Parenthood and other health care providers, two lawmakers backing the bill held up a handmade map covered in colored dots.

The map, they said, showed Planned Parenthood clinics and health clinics that could bridge the gap if Planned Parenthood lost funding.

“In every circumstance but one, there is another provider nearby,” Rep. P. Eric Turner, R-Cicero, told the representatives assembled April 27.

When another legislator asked whether those providers offered family planning services and other reproductive health care, Turner said he didn’t know.

The answer in many cases is, no.

The list provided by House Republicans and on their website includes health service providers that have nothing to do with women’s reproductive health, sexual health or family planning.

They include: a Salvation Army addiction center, a homeless shelter, several mental health centers, a juvenile detention center and the Indiana Women’s Prison. * * *

Rep. Matthew Ubelhor, R-Bloomfield, who presented the map, did not respond to repeated requests through his staff for comment.

Rep. Win Moses, D-Fort Wayne, spoke forcefully against the bill in the House. Last week, he said the inexplicable inclusions on the GOP lawmakers’ map showed they had not done their research.

“It bordered on lying,” he said. “They have once again shown they don’t care about truth in this matter.”

He especially took issue with what he calls “religious arrogance” inserted into the debate; specifically, Turner’s assertion he “has faith” low-income women will find affordable health care.

Turner and supporters of the bill argue it will make Indiana the “most pro-life state” in the country; Moses disagrees.

“In fact, it makes us the most anti-woman state, certainly anti-women’s-health state,” he said, “and that’s a dismal situation.”

From LifeNews.com:
At the end of April, Daniels issued a statement about why he planned to sign the bill into law.

“I will sign HEA 1210 when it reaches my desk a week or so from now. I supported this bill from the outset, and the recent addition of language guarding against the spending of tax dollars to support abortions creates no reason to alter my position,” Daniels said. “The principle involved commands the support of an overwhelming majority of Hoosiers, as reflected in greater than 2:1 bipartisan votes in both legislative chambers.”

Daniels added that he “commissioned a careful review of access to services across the state 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.”

“Any organization affected by this provision can resume receiving taxpayer dollars immediately by ceasing or separating its operations that perform abortions,” he said.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on May 15, 2011 01:08 PM
Posted to Indiana Law