Feds warn states that defunding Planned Parenthood could be breaking the law

Medicaid is a U.S. government healthcare program for the poor; Medicare is for the aged and disabled.

“There’s a requirement in the [Medicaid] statute for free choice of providers”, said Cindy Mann, who recently stepped down as head of the federal Medicaid program and is now with the law firm Manatt, Phelps & Phillips.

As it has for weeks, Planned Parenthood said it has done nothing wrong.

Soon after Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, one of 17 contenders for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, initiated his state’s push to cut funding of Planned Parenthood.

“It’s good to hear that HHS has clarified what we already know: blocking women’s access to care at Planned Parenthood is against the law”, she added.

In the South, withholding funding would have the most impact in Louisiana, where more dollars have been paid to Planned Parenthood.

HHS spoke to Medicaid agency officials in both states shortly after each announcement.

Planned Parenthood doesn’t now provide abortions in Louisiana, but offers cancer screenings, birth control, gynecology exams, sexually transmitted disease treatment and other health services in Baton Rouge and New Orleans. “The only way you can limit the provider is to establish that they’re not, in fact, qualified as a Medicaid provider”. “I respect human life and do not want Alabama to be associated with an organization that does not”, he said.

Local activists are organizing a Stand with Planned Parenthood counter protest after an antiabortion group announced its intention to rally next weekend.

The agency warned those two states that their plans to terminate Medicaid provider agreements with Planned Parenthood may illegally restrict beneficiary access to services, the spokesperson said in a statement.

Mallory Quigley, a spokeswoman for the Susan B. Anthony List, a pro-life group, said that “courts will uphold the rights of states to defund Planned Parenthood if they’re violating federal law, and it’s clear they’re in violation here”, referring to the alleged unlawful activity revealed by the recent undercover videos.

According to the Texas Policy Evaluation Project, which is studying the impact of the changes, by 2013 the reductions caused 82 clinics (not all of them run by Planned Parenthood) to close or stop providing family planning services. “CMS reached out to DHH [the state’s Department of Health and Hospitals] after we canceled the Medicaid provider contract with Planned Parenthood“.