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Opening Arguments

Mean and then some

The New York Times editorial page has weighed in on the Obama administration's rejection of the Indiana ban on giving Medicaid funds to Planned Parenthood clinics, calling it a "mean-spirited and dangerous" law:

The law, signed by Gov. Mitch Daniels of Indiana in May, is just one effort by Republican-led state legislatures around the country to end public financing for Planned Parenthood — a goal the House Republicans failed to achieve in the budget deal in April. The organization is a favorite target because a small percentage of its work involves providing abortion care even though no government money is used for that purpose.

[. . .]

Governor Daniels and Republican lawmakers, by depriving Planned Parenthood of about $3 million in government funds, would punish thousands of low-income women on Medicaid, who stand to lose access to affordable contraception, life-saving breast and cervical cancer screenings, and testing and treatment for H.I.V. and other sexually transmitted diseases. Making it harder for women to obtain birth control is certainly a poor strategy for reducing the number of abortions.

Lots of problems there, which have been extensively discussed and debated: 1) All those services don't have to be available through Planned Parenthood, if indeed you feel they should be paid for by the federal government. 2) Planned Parenthood abortions may be "a small percentage of its work" but they amount to between a quarter and a third of all abortions performed in this country. 3) Even if government money isn't used for a certain procedure, giving government money to an organization that provides the procedure amounts to subsidizing the procedure.

And Indiana's law would deprive Planned Parenthood of about $3 million a year in Medicaid funding. If Indiana won't back down, the Obama administration is threatening the state with a loss of about $4 billion in Medicaid funds. If withholding $3 million is "mean-spirited and dangerous," what exactly would withholding $4 billion be?

Comments

tim zank
Sat, 06/04/2011 - 9:02am

"If withholding $3 million is

Michaelk42
Sat, 06/04/2011 - 9:12am

"If withholding $3 million is

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