A pro-life legal organization believes a federal appeals court decision yesterday underlines the importance of the November election.
The Seventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday that Indiana's ban on Medicaid tax dollars for Planned Parenthood violates federal rules. The court said the state cannot eliminate the funding just because the abortion giant provides abortions.
Attorney Mary Harned of Americans United for Life tells OneNewsNow she disagrees with how the court interpreted Medicaid rules.
"We believe that [those rules] can be read right now to permit a law like Indiana's -- but of course they're not going to do it that way," she concedes. "What we need is a new administration to clarify that the Medicaid program permits states to prohibit abortion providers from receiving Medicaid funds; that the states can actually impose these kinds of prohibitions on who can receive their funds."
Harned believes what would be even more effective is for Congress to pass a bill permitting the states to do so, rather than depend on the interpretation of bureaucrats or the courts.
"Absolutely -- that would be the best solution," she says. "And so again that shows why the Senate races are important as well, and of course the House races. We need to have a friendly Congress that could actually revisit this statutorily as well."
Texas also banned Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers from receiving Medicaid funds. The Obama administration denied Texas funding, so the state is handling the financing of it on its own.
Contact: Charlie Butts
Source: OneNewsNow.com
