Planned Parenthood is suing Louisiana over its attempt to strip Medicaid funds from the group’s two clinics in the state, the women’s health and abortion provider said Tuesday.
It’s the first legal action by Planned Parenthood after the release of a series of undercover videos from an anti-abortion investigator highlighting the group’s involvement in supplying aborted fetal tissue for medical research.
Planned Parenthood filed for an injunction in federal court to block Louisiana from cutting off roughly $730,000 in Medicaid dollars annually from its two clinics, one in New Orleans and one in Baton Rouge. More than 5,200 women would be affected were the funding to be halted, the group said. Medicaid dollars can’t be used for abortions, but they can be used for health services such as cancer screenings and contraception.
“What they’re actually doing is ensuring some women’s cancer will get worse and infections such as HIV will spread,” said Reagan Carter, director of public affairs for Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast. “That’s why we’re fighting this with everything we’ve got.”
Louisiana is one of three states trying to withhold Medicaid dollars from Planned Parenthood. The other two states are Alabama and Arkansas. Planned Parenthood legal counsel Carrie Flaxman said the group hasn’t sued the other two states at this point, but it’s considering “all available options.”
“Our affiliates are all looking carefully at available options in states where efforts are being taken against us,” Flaxman said.
Planned Parenthood may have legal precedent on its side. Two federal appeals courts — the 7th and the 9th — have ruled in the past that Arizona and Indiana can’t withhold Medicaid funding from qualified health providers such as Planned Parenthood clinics.
Louisiana has said Planned Parenthood will lose its Medicaid funding starting Sept. 2. The group has asked the judge to block the effort by that date. Carter said the group also is moving forward with plans to build a third facility, this one also in New Orleans.
