Defund PP Update
Indiana recently passed a law that would prohibit state agencies from entering into contracts with or making grants to any entity that performs abortions or maintains a facility where abortions are performed. The law essential prevents Medicaid funds, which are administered by the state, from going to Planned Parenthood.
6/24/11
U.S. District Judge Tanya Pratt granted Planned Parenthood's request for a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit filed after Governor Mitch Daniels signed the defunding bill. The injunction also barred an informed-consent provision of the law requiring that women seeking an abortion be told that, according to "objective scientific information, " fetuses can feel pain at or before 20 weeks after fertilization. She rejected PP's request to block the portion of the law that requires women to be told that "human physical life begins when a human ovum is fertilized by a human sperm." Through a letter sent from the Department of Health and Human Services, and a brief sent from the U.S. Justice Department, the Obama administration placed pressure on the federal judge to issue the injunction.
8/10/11
Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller has filed an appeal seeking a reversal of a lower court ruling that forced Indiana to resume public funding for Planned Parenthood by blocking the defunding provisions of HEA 1210. The American Center for Law and Justice and the Thomas More Society have both filed amicus briefs in the US Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in support of Indiana's right to end state-directed funding for Planned Parenthood.