INDIANAPOLIS Shortly after Gov. Mitch Daniels said Friday he will sign into law a tough, new anti-abortion measure that prohibits government funding of Planned Parenthood, the family planning organization said it will seek injunctive relief to keep the measure from taking effect.
The law, passed earlier this week by the Indiana General Assembly, means Medicaid recipients who use the agency's clinics including the 400 per year who use the one in Evansville will be separated from their doctors.
Daniels said in a statement that reproductive health care will still be readily available in the areas those clinics serve.
"I have ordered the Family and Social Services Administration to see that Medicaid recipients receive prompt notice of nearby care options. We will take any actions necessary to ensure that vital medical care is, if anything, more widely available than before," he said.
The governor's office said the bill will block tax dollars from going to all 28 of Planned Parenthood's clinics in Indiana, as well as six clinics operated by other agencies.
That money about $3 million per year for Planned Parenthood of Indiana does not directly fund abortions, but proponents of the measure said no tax money should go to agencies that offer the procedure.
"Any organization affected by this provision can resume receiving taxpayer dollars immediately by ceasing or separating its operations that perform abortions," Daniels said.
The bill also puts Indiana at risk of losing $4 million in federal family planning grants. Strings tied to those grants require that states not pick and choose which health care providers receive them. Daniels' statement did not address that possibility.
Announcing the decision to seek an injunction "immediately" to keep the measure from taking effect, Betty Cockrum, head of Planned Parenthood of Indiana, called Daniels' decision "unconscionable and unspeakable."
"We will now suffer the consequences of lawmakers who have no regard for fact-based decision making and sound public health policy," she said.
"As many as 22,000 low-income Hoosiers will lose their medical home. Countless patients will find themselves without access to lifesaving tests to avoid the tragic outcomes of cervical and breast cancer and epidemic sexually transmitted disease here in Indiana," Cockrum said.
The governor's decision, which came on the last day of this year's legislative session, will make Indiana the first state to defund Planned Parenthood.
Daniels has said he will decide after the legislative session whether to seek the Republican nomination for president in 2012.
If he decides to run for president, his decision sign the bill could help ease the worries of conservatives who have complained about his call for a "truce" on social issues at the national level in order to focus on debt reduction.
The Planned Parenthood clinic in Evansville provides an average of 400 Medicaid recipients each year with Pap smears, testing for sexually transmitted diseases, breast cancer screenings, contraception and more.
Rep. Gail Riecken, D-Evansville, said the move is "cold and mean-spirited." She called it a setback for women's reproductive care.
Riecken's father and brother both doctors regularly volunteered at the Planned Parenthood clinic in Evansville, she said.
"I was brought up to think that Planned Parenthood was one of the most essential services that a woman could have. That's why it's been so hard to take," she said. "It's sad. It's going to set women's health care back years and years. It's not fair. It's not right."
The governor's office said there are 38 other Medicaid providers in Vanderburgh County. But Riecken said the problem is that those who relied on those clinics will now have to find alternate options.
"Those people who were going to be served by Planned Parenthood are out in the cold," she said.
"People are going to get hurt. I don't know where they're going to go."
Rep. Sue Ellspermann, R-Ferdinand, supported the measure. She said there are plenty of other options for women seeking reproductive care in the Evansville area, including the Pregnancy Resource Center.
"More importantly, we should recognize that Southern Indiana, and Southwest Indiana particularly, is extremely pro-life and has asked us to help them take a stronger stance in ensuring the health of all those unborn children," she said.
The bill also would also reduce the amount of time that abortions are legal from the first 24 weeks of a pregnancy to the first 20 weeks. It requires doctors to offer women who seek abortions an opportunity to view an ultrasound.
Lawmakers amended the Planned Parenthood provision into the bill late in this year's four-month legislative session.
"I supported this bill from the outset, and the recent addition of language guarding against the spending of tax dollars to support abortions creates no reason to alter my position," Daniels said.