So we start the week, as I always do when I can, with good news. Two bits of good news, in fact, both from the southwest US.First, in Arizona.
Last year, the state passed a law which would prohibit Medicaid patients from receiving any covered services at clinics that also provide abortion care. The law was clearly and directly aimed at Planned Parenthood. I still find it astonishing that Planned Parenthood - I mean, Planned Parenthood? - is now supposed to be a wildly controversial organization. It just shows how far to the wacko right some of our state legislatures have gone.
In response to this law, Planned Parenthood and the ACLU sued - and in February, a federal district court agreed,granting a summary judgment in favor of a permanent injunction.
The good news here is that the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld that decision.
Judge Marsha Berzon, writing for the unanimous three-judge panel, said the issue comes down to a simple fact: Federal law allows those enrolled in Medicaid to get the services from any qualified provider.
The state tried to claim that, well yeah, that's true, but the state is free to decide who is “qualified.” That argument got short shrift, considering that the federal law defines "qualified" as a provider “qualified to perform the service or services required.” Since the state has never claimed that Planned Parenthood staff doctors are unqualified to perform gynecological exams or STD testing, and in fact said that Planned Parenthood could continue to participate in the state's Medicaid program if it stopped providing abortions, the state's attempt at a defense of the law was - Judge Berzon didn't say this, obviously, but the meaning is clear enough - that defense was lame.
This was actually the second win for Planned Parenthood in the last month, as a similar law in Indiana got hit with a permanent injunction the end of July - the day after the state conceded in a settlement with Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky that the state cannot violate Medicaid’s “freedom of choice” provision.Indiana hasn't given up yet, however: First, you need to know of Mifepristone, formerly called RU-486. It's the so-called "abortion pill," the "morning after pill," which provides a non-surgical means of providing abortion in the first seven to nine weeks of pregnancy. Well, a new amendment to Indiana state law requires that any facility which provides Mifepristone must meet the same standards as clinics that offer surgical procedures, including separate procedure, recovery, and scrub rooms - even if there are no surgical procedures performed there. This amendment, it turns out, applies to precisely one facility: a Planned Parenthood clinic in Lafayette.
But Planned Parenthood and the ACLU haven't given up, either. They have filed suit, saying the amendments "are not reasonably related to any legitimate purpose," "irrationally and invidiously discriminate against" Planned Parenthood and impose "a significant and unnecessary burden" on the women affected.
So the fight goes on.
Sources:
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/07/17/pro-choice-groups-file-lawsuit-over-arizona-law-defunding-planned-parenthood/
http://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2013/08/21/12-17558%20web.pdf
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/23/arizona-planned-parenthood_n_3804487.html
http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/arizona/capitol_media_services/article_96a86f52-0b6e-11e3-8bc5-0019bb2963f4.html
http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20130730/NEWS10/307300111/Planned-Parenthood-Indiana-reach-agreement-funding?gcheck=1
http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/mifepristone
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/23/planned-parenthood-indiana-abortion-law_n_3805436.html?utm_hp_ref=huffpolitics-blog
https://www.aclu.org/reproductive-freedom/aclu-and-planned-parenthood-file-anti-discrimination-lawsuit-against-indiana
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