GOP to HHS: Let states cut off Planned Parenthood

Twenty-eight Republican senators said Thursday that the Obama administration should not stop the state of Indiana from implementing a new law designed to cut off federal funding for Planned Parenthood.

Earlier this month, the federal Medicaid agency denied Indiana's proposal to prevent state residents from using Medicaid at any entity that provides abortions.

"Unfortunately, your decision is simply the latest example of this Administration’s alarming pattern of usurping states’ authority to manage their Medicaid programs in ways that best meet the needs of their citizens," the 28 senators said in a letter to Medicaid administrator Don Berwick.

Federal law already bans federal funding for abortion; Indiana's law would cut off all of Planned Parenthood's Medicaid funding because it provides abortions in addition to a range of other health and family planning services.

The Health and Human Services Department said the tactic is illegal. States cannot determine whether a healthcare provider is qualified to offer Medicaid-funded services based solely on the fact that they offer a specific procedure, HHS said.

But the Republican senators, led by Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), said in their letter that HHS's determination "represents a significant departure from Medicaid’s longstanding practice of having the states – not the federal government – set reasonable standards for qualified providers."

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