HHS rejects Indiana's new law to defund Planned Parenthood

Source: Planned Parenthood 2008-9 annual report

This is very good news:

The Health and Human Services Department is telling the state of Indiana that its Medicaid plan, which bans funding to Planned Parenthood, is illegal and must be changed.

Anti-choicers claimed the bill was about ensuring that taxpayer dollars are not used to fund abortions, by cutting off funding to family-planning centers like Planned Parenthood. But in reality:

The bill, which passed both houses of the state legislature by large margins, imposes some of the nation’s toughest restrictions on abortions, cutting off about $3 million in public funds received for female preventive health services, including birth control, breast and cervical cancer screenings and other tests in the Hoosier state.

Fact is, Indiana's bill didn't just cut off access to abortion. It cut off access to all health care for a lot of Indiana women on Medicaid. Because it turns out, family planning centers like Planned Parenthood are the "main source of health care for 60 percent of the women who use them, according to the Guttmacher Institute."

But hey, who cares if women have no access to health care, if it's all in the name of the "culture of life," right?

Thankfully, it looks like the warriors in the war on women may have lost this round.

2:22 PM PT: You can read the full letter here [PDF].