Obama Threatens to Cut Off Low Income Healthcare Funds to Indiana if They Defund Planned Parenthood

Last month Indiana voted to defund Planned Parenthood and the Obama administration is not taking kindly that choice. The AP is reporting that the Obama administration may withhold up to $4.3 billion in Medicaid funding for low income healthcare from Indiana if they do not change their mind about defunding Planned Parenthood.

Planned Parenthood has long been a target of pro-life advocates as they perform more than one in four US abortion and are one of the most outspoken political defenders of the procedure. In Indiana, Planned Parenthood performs over half of all abortions based on their latest annual report which showed that they did 5,580 termination procedures. About 10,700 abortions are annually performed statewide by all providers.

The question facing the Obama administration is whether they are willing to leave low-income families without health care to punish Indiana. Last week the White House and HHS ordered Indiana to reinstate funds for Planned Parenthood.

Where do things go from here? Possibilities range from nothing happening at all and the defunding standing to the Obama administration withholding all federal Medicaid funds from Indiana. A compromise is also possible. A legal challenge is active too as LifeNews.com reports that:

Planned Parenthood has sued Indiana over the new law and U.S. District Judge Tanya Walton Pratt, who has said she would rule by July 1, is expected to hold a hearing tomorrow on the law.

Mike Fichter, the director of Indiana Right to Life, told LifeNews:

“The Obama administration appears to be intent on trying to force Indiana to subsidize the business of abortion in direct contrast to the desires of the state legislature and the people of Indiana.  Indiana must refuse to be bullied by the federal government and must challenge this politically-charged determination with full vigor.  The state of Indiana has a right to determine how it will manage its Medicaid program and to select the providers it will partner with.  Planned Parenthood is not entitled to public funding,” he said.

  • Beswick Fiona

    How dare they defund Planned Parenthood? Do they learn nothing? When abortion is illegal, it still goes ahead. Just dangerously, in back room, with no anasthetic, no sterility. Is that what the supposed ‘pro-lifers’ want? To have women bleed to death or die from overwhelming infections? Yes, very pro-life, I don’t think. How dare they do this. The most important right a woman has is the the control of her own fertility and child-bearing. 
    You are detestable and dangerous people, dragging women back to the Dark Ages. If the battle for abortion rights is lost, it will be followed by contraception rights. Already the pro-lifers demand the ridiculous ‘abstinence’ pledges. Yet they are unable to see that these in fact lead to more abortions, as kids who are sexually active and also well-informed carry condoms. The abstinence kids don’t, and when they get carried away, which they will do, especially as they are denied other outlets like petting and masturbation, then they are not prepared. It is countries like Sweden, where the kids are helped out to be active where they have the least incidences of unplanned pregnancy. 
    Your whole attitude leads to misery. Unprepared teens get pregnant, feel desperately ashamed, can’t get a safe abortion and end up going to a back-street butcher. Just like the 40s and 50s. Is this really what you want? Think it through.

  • Azjen

    I find it interesting whenever Republicans & Democrats get into a discussion..if the Democrats have done something…everyone is reminded that it’s the Bush family’s fault.  I don’t need to call Mr. Obama any names b/c he has already made the names for himself by his actions.  He wants to destroy our country & when & if that happens,…I wonder who he is going to be blame that on?  Oh yes, right!!  the two past Bush presidents.  I have never seen a president who couldn’t stand on his own feet & make his own decisions.  Instead he hires everyone that he owes anything to & calls them a Czar.  I think we would all be taken back if we knew what these people’s salaries were.  Or better yet…his entourage that he takes with him to the countries he goes to…that is totally silly.  Who needs 6 doctors at once?  He has his whole kitchen staff..guess he’s afraid that someone is going to poison him. Think I read 500 body guards went with him too.  This guy has to be totally paranoid.  And as far as that goes…to those who disagree with me, please do not even bother to respond b/c I’m outta of here…G’Night!!

  • Ryandaugherty

    CIA renditions have continued under Obama…Guantanamo Bay is still open.  KSM provided information that led to Osama’s courier, the inside source that gave us intel about Osama’s whereabouts.  Under Obama not only are we STILL in Afghanistan and Iraq, we are now involved in Libya, as well as conducting some limited military airstrikes in Yemen.  Bush didn’t ruin the economy, greed did…greed by bankers as part of the Community Residential mortgage lending Act (CRA), signed by Clinton.  It effectively threatened banks with government intervention if they didn’t lend money to low income people with no way to pay it back.  Obama’s policies didn’t cause the economy to collapse either, but they HAVE stymied the economy from bouncing back….now we’re looking at a possible double-dip recession.  It should tell you something when even George Soros, wealthy ultra-liberal financier, owns gold as an investment and has begun selling it off…

  • Umt70s

    A President to Sanction Americans??? 

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  • http://www.facebook.com/dewayne.vanatta DeWayne VanAtta

    You’ve
    got to be kidding! Big brother is now going to start kicking butt and taking
    names of everyone who disagrees with him. When did the STATES lose their right
    to govern themselves? It has always been the strongest tenant of Federal
    Government Control against tyranny that the states had the right to pass their
    own laws according to the vote of the governed.

    For
    the Federal Court to allow an agency receiving government aid to sue in Federal
    Court to over ride the vote of the people in that state literally stinks of
    rotten policy. Obama’s Czar over protection of abortion rights is far
    overstepping their position by allowing the DOJ to enter into battle against
    the State Government over any policy of the state. When Federal Commissions or
    any other voice of authority speaking for the Federal Government takes sides
    with what the people of any state has voted to be the voice of the people on a
    moral issue, it is more than denial of their right to free speech, it is the
    prevention of the right to practice religion without interference of the
    Federal Government. That is a blatant violation of the First Amendment of the
    Constitution. Morality, sin, or regulatory policy over the religious values
    voiced by the vote of the public should never be permitted by any court,
    Federal or otherwise.

    It is
    nothing new to hear this kind of tyranny coming from the Obama Administration,
    whether from a Czar he has appointed, a Judge he has swayed, or even military
    intervention, which is not outside the mindset of this Administration, to keep
    the people in line with their imperial rules and regulations.  It’s unconstitutional and should outrage
    anyone who values the rule of law and the way things were before the Obama
    Administration started dismantling the Constitution and relegating our freedoms
    guaranteed under that Constitution to small groups of imperialist who appear to
    be hell bent on destroying the moral convictions of the masses to please a
    minority group. Abortion is not a right guaranteed under the Constitution. It
    absolutely could not be, because abortion is murder and murder is against the
    law in all fifty states and under Federal Law as well.

    We have watched the erosion of the Constitution
    steadily decay since the Federal Government forced the renewal and expansion of
    the Patriot Act on us in the name of protecting Our Liberties.  I didn’t like it from the beginning; however,
    I was willing to go along with the need during an all out war on terrorism.  Even then, only for a limited time and
    closely guarded limits of intrusion. 
    What we have now s a joke and a travesty for all peace loving and
    FREEDOM loving American patriots.
     

    For myself, I would rather protect myself and my own
    family.  I am perfectly capable of
    enforcing the safety of my own immediate domain.  Between Smith and Wesson and myself, my home
    and my family will remain safe.  Instead
    of arming our police officers with tasers, don’t mistake my loyalties here I am
    a retired cop myself, I think we would be better off arming every female with a
    taser, some pepper spray, and a side arm and train each of them in their

    uses.  In addition, every male should be
    issued an AR-15, an M-16, and a side arm. 
    He too needs to be thoroughly trained in their uses.  That should be the right of passage for every
    young person stepping aside from the things of a child and taking on the
    responsibilities of an adult.

    Let someone try to hijack an airplane with 200 fully
    armed and trained people aboard.  I
    personally believe crime would drop to a mere fraction of what it is today if
    we simply put the right deterrent in place to remove the crimes of opportunity.  They become crimes of extreme risk for the
    criminal and life gets simpler for everybody else.  This action would also get rid of what some
    perceive to be the responsibility of “Big Brother” to ride herd over our lives.  It would allow us to again be from the land
    of the brave and the home of the free.

    All this insanity and undermining the rule of law is
    being done in the name of equality and human rights.  The Administration stooping to threats of
    taking our allowance away from us if we don’t go along with their inequities
    and then standing by while allowing the use of Federal Courts to usurp State’s
    authority to govern themselves.  To think
    some people actually have the audacity to accuse those of us who love this
    great Republic enough to get upset when certain factions taint the very idea of
    liberty with the use of force and robbery to ruin our nation with criminal behavior.

  • JAY

    im very discouraged and very angry with the way this whole WONDERFULL nation is now being ran.  My wife who is a MOTHER of three has now had her health care taken away from her. That is so messed up, she has had it ever since she has had children and now it has been stripped away from her, and believe me when i say SHE NEEDS IT….. I dont know what we are supposed to do now because money is tight as it is and with three kids health care for yourself is near impossible without help.  PLS PLS PLS if nothing else, at least take extra good care of the MOTHERS of this world, i mean come on, we would be nothing without them…. 

  • Anonymous

    What percentage of the other half  in Indiana are funded by the state government through medicaid?        
       I need to find that out for my state  of Tennessee neither the federal or state government should be funding the  mass murder of Americans either directly or indirectly.                              
      Congress should take foreign governments funding of murdering babies before birth when making trade policy even withWestern Europe countries and even Canada.                    
     Red China has over 13 million abortions a year many of them forced by that communist government.

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