Planned Parenthood Sues Louisiana to Stop Funding Cuts

Today, Planned Parenthood asked a federal court to block Louisiana's attempts to defund its clinics in the state.

According to today's lawsuit, neither of the two Planned Parenthood locations in Louisiana provides abortion services, nor have they ever. However, both locations do administer a litany of other reproductive healthcare services, including cancer screenings, STD testing, birth control, pregnancy testing, and other preventative care. The clinics currently serve roughly 5200 low-income patients through Medicaid; unless the court acts, both will be defunded on September 2.

On August 3, Louisiana first announced that it was planning to terminate Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast's Medicaid provider agreement—cutting off roughly $730,000 Medicaid dollars from the state's clinics, which are based in New Orleans and Baton Rouge. In a press release published the same day, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal cited the deceptively edited videos released by the Center for Medical Progress, an anti-abortion group, purporting to show that Planned Parenthood profits off of the sale of fetal parts. "In recent weeks, it has been shocking to see reports of the alleged activities taking place at Planned Parenthood facilities across the country. Planned Parenthood does not represent the values of the people of Louisiana and shows a fundamental disrespect for human life," Jindal said in the release.

In the suit, Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast (PPGC) and three plaintiffs—all identified as "Jane Doe"—argue that cutting Medicaid funding to the clinics is blatantly illegal and that it "will cause significant and irreparable harm to PPCG and its Medicaid patients." As the US Department of Health and Human Services recently reminded Gov. Jindal, it's a violation of federal laws to prevent Medicaid patients from receiving care from a qualified provider. In a statement released on August 13, a Department spokesperson warned, "By restricting which provider a woman could choose to receive care from, women could lose access to critical preventive care, such as cancer screenings."

Reagan Carter, the senior director of external services for PPGC, echoed this sentiment. "Planned Parenthood and Medicaid have worked hand-in-hand for years to improve the health of more than 5200 Louisiana citizens, but now, illegal action taken by Gov. Jindal and the Dept. of Health and Hospitals have put thousands of peoples' health at risk," she said in a teleconference. Carter further noted that, according to research by Kaiser Family Foundation, nearly two-thirds of New Orleans residents say that there are not enough health resources for low-income people in the city. In addition, New Orleans and Baton Rouge, have some of the highest HIV infection rates of all the cities in the United States.

"When Gov. Jindal and other politicians try to cut Planned Parenthood's funding in order to score a political point, what they're actually doing is insuring that some woman's cancer will get worse before it's caught and that HIV and other infections will spread," Carter said.

Jindal's office seemed unintimidated by the legal action. "Planned Parenthood is flailing," Jindal spokesman Mike Reed said in a statement. "This lawsuit is without merit, and the state will aggressively defend our right to cancel the contract."

However, in the past year federal courts have blocked similar efforts to defund Planned Parenthood in Arizona and Indiana. "We are confident that after a thorough review of the case, the court will agree that the state's termination of Planned Parenthood's provider agreement is a violation of federal law," said Carrie Flaxman, an attorney for Planned Parenthood.

"This political grandstanding could have a real and devastating consequence for women, men, and teens who rely on us," said Carter. "That's why we're fighting this with everything we've got."