Brought to you by WBIW News and Network Indiana
Last updated on Wednesday, August 3, 2011
(INDIANAPOLIS, IN) - As expected, Indiana is asking a Federal Appeals Court to let it cut off state funding to Planned Parenthood.
Planned Parenthood briefly cut hours and furloughed employees before a judge blocked the defunding law in June.
CEO Betty Cockrum says she's not taking anything for granted, but expects that court order to be upheld.
The state argues Judge Tanya Walton Pratt's ruling short-circuited a process set out by federal law for state Medicaid rules to be approved or rejected by the Department of Health and Human Services.
ACLU Attorney Ken Falk contends a court had to step in because patients were already being denied access to services.
Falk also rejects the state's claim that it has the right to determine which providers are qualified to receive Medicaid dollars.
He argues providers can only be shut out of the program for gross misconduct, such as fraud.
The law denies state funding to any organization other than a hospital which performs abortions.
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