A federal judge has granted Planned Parenthood a temporary injunction against an Indiana law that stripped it of all federal funding in the state.
“If dogma trumps pragmatism and neither side budges, Indiana’s most vulnerable citizens could end up paying the price as the collateral damage of a partisan battle,” U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Walton Pratt wrote in her decision.
In May, Gov. Mitch Daniels (R) signed a law that blocked all federal funds from going to Planned Parenthood, on the grounds that it performs abortions.
Planned Parenthood had asked for a preliminary injunction, arguing that when the law went into effect on June 20 it cut about $1.4 million funding that goes to Medicaid recipients, and would consequently cut health care services for around 9,000 people.
Reuters reports that Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller said of the ruling: “We will thoroughly review the ruling but it is likely that the State of Indiana will seek an …appeal to the U.S. 7th Circuit.”
Earlier this month, officials in the Department of Health and Human Services sent a letter to Indiana’s Medicaid office suggesting that the law illegally blocks Medicaid recipients from receiving health care services, and therefore the state should not implement it.
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