Gov. Bobby Jindal was the first among Republican governors to cut off Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood after the latest attacks on the organization, the release of "sting" videos by anti-choice extremists posing as a medical research company. The organization
filed suit Tuesday to stop the defunding effort.
Without a court injunction, more than 5,200 Planned Parenthood patients who rely on Medicaid for health care would have to find care elsewhere, the organization says.
"We're in court today to protect over 5,200 people's access to cancer screenings, well-woman exams, and basic health care in Louisiana," Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said in a statement. "Many of these folks would have nowhere else to turn for health care."
Richards slammed Jindal for attempting to cut Planned Parenthood funding "to score political points," charging that the governor's moves are putting women's health at risk.
Of course it's about scoring political points and trying desperately to gain an edge in the presidential campaign. Neither of Louisiana's two Planned Parenthood facilities even provides abortion services, so the cut-off of funds was absolutely baseless. But they provide a huge service—the East Baton Rouge clinic "served 60 percent of the female contraceptive clients served at publicly funded clinics in 2010."
The law is on Planned Parenthood's side, as the feds have reminded Jindal. Medicaid law specifically requires that recipients can choose whatever provider they want that accepts Medicaid patients. That includes Planned Parenthood, the medical home for millions of low income people. The only way a state can intervene and withdraw its portion of Medicaid funding is if the provider has committed fraud or certain other criminal acts. Which Planned Parenthood has not done, in Louisiana or anywhere else.