Planned Parenthood of Indiana started seeing patients again over the weekend after a federal judge granted the organizations' Medicaid funding be restored.
On Friday, U.S. District Judge Tanya Walton granted PPIN's motion for a preliminary injuction to halt the enforcement of the new state law that strips Medicaid funding to the organization, according to a press release.
The decision means clinics across the state can be reimbursed for the preventive health care it provides to 9,300 Medicaid patients.
Walton said she agrees with PPIN's claims that the new state law violates federal law. She ruled the Medicaid defunding portion of the law should not be enforced during the interim period before a permanent injuction hearing takes place.
According to the press release, Walton said the public interest tilts in favor of granting an injunction, and the federal government has threatened partial or total withholding of federal Medicaid dollars to the state of Indiana, which could total more than $5 billion annually and affect nearly 1 million Hoosiers.
"Thus, denying the injunction could pit the federal government against the state of Indiana in a high-stakes political impasse. And if dogma trumps pragmatism and neither side budges, Indiana's most vulnerable citizens could end up paying the price as the collateral damage of a partisan battle," she said. "With this backdrop in mind, along with the reasons discussed above, the Court believes the most prudent course of action to enjoin the defunding provision while the judicial process runs its course."
Betty Cockrum, PPIN president and CEO, said she is relieved by the ruling in a press release.
"This decision will have immediate, positive consequences for our patients and our organization, the state's largest reproductive health care provider," she said. "This ruling means we can resume providing Pap tests, breast exams, STD testing and treatment and birth control to both existing and new Medicaid patients."
The ruling also means the two disease intervention specialists who were laid off in Muncie last week will be hired back to work while the permanent injunction the organization is seeking is pending.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana is representing PPIN, and legal director Ken Falk said he knows this ruling isn't the end.
"This is a positive step in what likely will be a long legal battle," he said. "We are encouraged by the judge's ruling, but know our work is not yet done."
PPIN said another reason the new law violated the U.S. Constitution was because health care professionals would be forced to make statements to patients that are not medically and scientifically based. Pratt said she agreed and ruled that portions of the law requiring medical professionals to say a fetus can feel pain at or before 20 weeks post-fertilization will not go into effect July 1, but a portion requiring medical professionals to tell a woman that human physical life begins at conception must be implemented.
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