Governor weighs signing abortion bill - Indianapolis Star
Legislation would take away $2 million of $3 million that Planned Parenthood receives
By
Mary Beth Schneider and Heather Gillers - Apr. 28, 2011
A bill cutting off funding to Planned Parenthood of Indiana is headed to the governor's desk after the House approved it 66-32 on Wednesday.
House Bill 1210 would take away about $2 million of the $3 million Planned Parenthood receives annually in government funds and make Indiana the first state to prohibit the use of Medicaid at Planned Parenthood centers. Supporters of the bill say they do not want their tax dollars going to an organization that provides abortions.
"This is a really exciting day for unborn Hoosier children," said Sue Swayze, legislative director of Indiana Right to Life. "It's a moral decision on behalf of the state of Indiana, and it's the right thing to do."
The bill, which passed the Senate 35-13 last week, also shortens the cutoff date for abortions to 20 weeks. It also requires doctors to tell women seeking abortions that the procedure is linked to infertility and that fetuses can feel pain at 20 weeks or earlier. The author of the bill, Rep. Eric Turner, said the passage was a long time coming.
"I've been around here for 20 years and have longed for a significant pro-life bill, and today was the culmination of that," said Turner, R-Cicero. "I think pregnant ladies will have a better informed decision to make, and I think the net result will be less abortions in Indiana, and I'm pleased about that."
Gov. Mitch Daniels has not said whether he will sign the bill into law. But on a radio show earlier this year, he described his administration as "the most pro-life" in Indiana history.
If Daniels signs the bill into law, Planned Parenthood of Indiana said it would immediately seek an injunction to keep the state from enforcing it. The organization uses its government funding to provide services such as contraceptives, sexually transmitted disease tests and cancer screenings to 22,000 low-income Hoosiers.
"Cutting off access to birth control to Indiana's most vulnerable will mean more unintended pregnancies, more Medicaid-covered births and more abortions," said Betty Cockrum, president of Planned Parenthood of Indiana. She also said the bill will force doctors to give patients seeking abortions medically inaccurate information.
The state has the authority to cut off about two-thirds of the taxpayer money Planned Parenthood of Indiana receives. The group gets about $3 million a year in federal dollars, but only about $2 million is funneled through the state. The other $1 million of federal money goes directly to the Indiana Family Health Council, a nonprofit agency that has distributed and audited certain family-planning funds since 1976. The state has no authority to stop the flow of those funds.
Cutting off the $2 million could come at a high cost to the state. About $1.3 million of that is Medicaid family-planning money, which comes with a federal requirement that the state not pick and choose among providers. Federal officials declined to say what sanctions Indiana might face for doing so, but the Family and Social Services Administration has expressed concerns it would lose all $4 million of its Medicaid family-planning money. An attorney for the anti-abortion Alliance Defense Fund says past cases show that Indiana would not face penalties.
No government dollars fund abortions, which Planned Parenthood pays for with patient fees and private donations. The group provided 5,500 abortions in Indiana last year.
Bill opponents worried that cutting off funds would leave Hoosiers without access to reproductive health care.
The Indiana Family Health Council said that without Planned Parenthood, there would be no clinic where a woman could get free birth-control pills south of Monroe County and east of Dubois County.
Proponents of the bill said that they had found alternative services available near about every Planned Parenthood clinic in the state.
Seven Democrats voted with Republicans to approve the bill: Dave Cheatham, North Vernon; Chet Dobis, Merrillville; Terry Goodin, Austin; Sheila Klinker, Lafayette; Chuck Moseley, Portage; Steven Stemler, Jeffersonville; and Peggy Welch, Bloomington.
No Republican voted against the bill.
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