INDIANAPOLIS — Planned Parenthood clinics in Indiana started seeing Medicaid patients again Saturday, the day after a federal judge ruled the state couldn’t cut off the organization’s public funding for general health services just because it also provides abortions.
Planned Parenthood spokeswoman Kate Shepherd said she didn’t know how many Medicaid patients had visited the group’s 28 Indiana clinics since Friday night’s federal court ruling, but the clinics usually average about 80 a day.
“Saturday is one of the busier days because people don’t have to take off work, and they can get family members to watch their children,” Shepherd said.
Planned Parenthood of Indiana has been without Medicaid funding since May 10, when Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels signed the law, which cut off about $1.4 million and made Indiana the first state to deny the organization Medicaid funds for services such as breast exams and Pap tests.
Planned Parenthood, which serves about 9,300 Indiana clients on the state-federal health insurance plan for low-income and disabled people, was forced to stop seeing Medicaid patients last week after private donations that had paid those patients’ bills ran out.
The group was trying to get the word out to Medicaid patients that they could start coming back Saturday. The Associated Press
