INDIANAPOLIS —Indiana’s battle over whether Planned Parenthood can receive Medicaid dollars is moving to the U.S. 7th Circuit Court in Chicago.
Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller’s office filed notice in that court today that the state will appeal U.S. District Judge Tanya Walton Pratt’s decision to place a temporary hold on a new state law intended to stop government dollars from flowing to organizations that offer abortions.
The move comes as the state also appeals a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services decision that indicated the state must abandon its new law or risk losing more than $4 billion in annual Medicaid funds.
“Both the legal challenge and the administrative appeal are headed to the same court – the U.S. 7th Circuit – which is where this dispute between the state and the federal government over what procedures we will allow our tax dollars to indirectly support should be heard,” Zoeller said.
Betty Cockrum, the president and chief executive officer of Planned Parenthood of Indiana, which has 28 clinics in the state including one in Evansville, said she was “not surprised” by the state’s appeal.
“We are confident we will prevail in our legal arguments and find it regrettable that the Indiana attorney general has chosen to invest even more state resources in an appeal,” she said.
The state will attempt to have the preliminary injunction that Pratt placed on the measure, House Enrolled Act 1210, overturned.
After bipartisan votes, state lawmakers approved the measure blocking Medicaid dollars that cover reproductive care such as sexually transmitted disease exams, breast cancer exams, Pap smears and more from going to Planned Parenthood because it provides abortions.
Gov. Mitch Daniels signed the measure into law in May.