After multiple states have moved to cancel contracts with Planned Parenthood due to revelations about its aborted fetal tissue business, the Obama administration has come to the embattled organization's defense.
Federal officials revealed Wednesday that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has been contacting states considering defunding PP. The department's message: pulling funding from the abortion provider might be illegal.
According to Reuters, the federal agency, whose parent department is Health and Human Services, contacted officials in both Louisiana and Alabama, warning them that terminating their Medicaid contracts with PP "may illegally restrict beneficiary access to services."
HHS' warning is a reference to federal law requiring that state Medicaid programs, which cover healthcare for the poor, cover "family-planning services" and "supplies" for patients of child-bearing age. Canceling the Medicaid contracts with PP, the agency argued, might limit clients' access to federally-mandated services and providers of their choice.
Planned Parenthood of course cheered the federal government's attempts to strong-arm the states for their sake.
"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," Planned Parenthood Executive Vice President Dawn Laguens said in a statement Wednesday. Laguens dismissed the actions of governors and state legislators against her organization as "political grandstanding."
But Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal has maintained since his office first announced the termination of the PP contract that the state had the full legal authority to cancel at will since they contract with several other women's healthcare providers.
"Louisiana’s Medicaid Family Planning Services program is required to provide adequate services to women across the state. Cancellation of this contract at will does not jeopardize those services in any way as Planned Parenthood is just one of many providers in the Baton Rouge and New Orleans areas," said the Governor's press release.
