Planned Parenthood plays large role serving Indiana women

About two-thirds of Hoosier women who get contraceptive services at a publicly funded center do so through Planned Parenthood — nearly twice the national rate.

Planned Parenthood appears to be filling a gap in a state that ranks at or near the bottom in spending on public health in general, and also specifically on family planning services.

"We don't have a lot of family planning clinics and reproductive health clinics," said Beth Meyerson, assistant professor of health policy and management at Indiana University's School of Public Health. "Really that's because, for years, our legislature has been ideologically driven to gut our state of resources in this way."

Indiana, which prohibits abortion providers from receiving state family planning funds, was the first state to try in 2011 to prevent Medicaid recipients from seeking care at Planned Parenthood clinics.

A federal judge blocked implementation of that state law. Courts have ruled federal law doesn't allow providers to be excluded from Medicaid because they perform abortions.

Republicans in Congress are trying to change that.