The state’s Family and Social Services Administration has voiced concern that the funding restrictions could violate Medicaid policy and endanger $4 million in federal money for family planning.
Planned Parenthood of Indiana President Betty Cockrum said the provision threatened basic health care for Indiana women and will lead to undetected cancers, untreated sexually transmitted diseases and unplanned pregnancies.
Gov. Daniels said his administration confirmed that all non-abortion services will remain “readily available” in all 92 counties of Indiana. He has also ordered the Family and Social Services Administration to ensure that Medicaid recipients receive “prompt notice” of nearby care options.
Any clinic affected by the law can resume receiving taxpayer dollars immediately by “ceasing or separating its operations that perform abortions,” the governor said.
Planned Parenthood of Indiana and the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana sought a temporary restraining order against the bill. A federal judge refused to grant an emergency hold on May 11, but will take more time to consider whether the law should stand, the Indianapolis Star reports.
Indiana Right to Life characterized the new law’s provisions as “the most sweeping pro-life initiatives” in the state since the 1973 Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade.
“This legislation places Indiana on the vanguard of efforts to protect the unborn, to deny public funds to businesses that profit from abortion, and to ensure that women considering abortion have full and factual information about such issues as fetal development and alternatives to abortion,” said the group’s president and CEO Mike Fichter.
Many of these provisions have been on Indiana pro-lifers’ “to-do list,” Tebbe explained.
The new law opts Indiana out of abortion coverage in any state health insurance exchanges required under the 2010 federal health care law.
While the state previously restricted abortion based on the ambiguous standard of “viability,” the law now restricts abortions after 20 weeks into a pregnancy.
The law requires doctors who perform abortions to provide full information about abortion to women considering the procedure. These doctors must also maintain local hospital admitting privileges in order to streamline emergency access for any women injured during an abortion.
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These features will provide more information to women considering abortion, Tebbe said, “and with that we think they are more likely to make the better choice.”
Kevin J. Jones is a senior staff writer with Catholic News Agency. He was a recipient of a 2014 Catholic Relief Services' Egan Journalism Fellowship.