Indiana’s Planned Parenthood affiliate remains cut off from state Medicaid funding, despite the expiration of a federal ban on such payments to abortion providers for any healthcare services. The nationwide funding ban that Republicans included in last year’s law expired on July 4, leaving states to determine whether Planned Parenthood can receive payment from the program for low-income individuals for non-abortion care.
State Law Prohibits Funding
Indiana officials are seeking federal court approval to enforce a 2011 state law that prohibits any state funding to abortion-providing organizations. Federal courts blocked that law from taking effect, and Planned Parenthood continued receiving Indiana Medicaid payments for more than a decade before the federal ban was imposed last summer.
Jennifer Allen, CEO of Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates, denounced the state’s court action, saying ‘Indiana is doing all it can to block patients from care.’ This isn’t about abortion; Planned Parenthood has been banned from providing abortion in Indiana since 2022. It’s about whether people with low incomes get to see the provider they trust for essential health care like birth control, cancer screenings, STI testing, and wellness exams.
Indiana’s House Enrolled Act 1210, approved in 2011, bars state agencies from contracting with or giving grants to any organization that performs abortions or has a facility where abortions are performed. The law exempts hospitals and ambulatory surgical centers.
Court Rulings and Funding
Planned Parenthood’s Indiana affiliate won a permanent injunction in 2013, with U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Walton Pratt ruling that using the ban to deny Planned Parenthood Medicaid funding was unlawful because it would deny patients ‘a free choice of medical provider.’ However, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned that logic in 2025, agreeing with attorneys arguing that federal Medicaid law didn’t spell that out.
State data shows Indiana paid Planned Parenthood $1.6 million in 2025 and $1.7 million in 2024 for Medicaid services. The attorney general’s office said in a recent court filing that the state ‘has no intention of attempting to recoup past Medicaid payments’ made to Planned Parenthood.
Original reporting: Mirror Indy — read the source article.
