According to news sources, on Friday Planned Parenthood filed a motion in federal court to force the State of Arkansas to resume giving the abortion provider Medicaid money.
In 2015 Governor Hutchinson ordered the state to quit providing Medicaid reimbursements to Planned Parenthood clinics after a series of undercover videos showed Planned Parenthood officials discussing the sale of organs and tissue harvested from aborted babies.
As a result, Planned Parenthood filed a lawsuit in U.S. district Judge Kristine Baker’s court.
In 2015 and 2016, Judge Baker told the state it had to give Medicaid money to abortion providers like Planned Parenthood.
However, a federal panel of judges disagreed, and overturned Judge Baker’s bad ruling last August. Planned Parenthood appealed that decision to the entire federal Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Late last year the Eighth Circuit said it would let that panel’s good ruling from August stand. Arkansas officially quit giving Medicaid money to Planned Parenthood last November.
We expected Planned Parenthood to appeal that decision to the U.S. Supreme Court. After all, that is the next logical step in the appeal process. Instead Planned Parenthood filed a new brief with U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker last Friday.
Apparently Planned Parenthood is trying to use a few new arguments to force the state to hand over Medicaid money.
U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker has given Planned Parenthood virtually everything the group has ever asked for. Time and time again we have seen Judge Baker issue bad rulings only to have them thrown out by much more reasonable judges on the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals. Given that history, I would not be surprised if Judge Baker once again rules the state must give Medicaid money to Planned Parenthood. I also would not be surprised if the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals once again overturns that bad decision.
Arkansans have made it clear they oppose abortion in some or all circumstances, and they don’t want their tax money going to abortion clinics. Planned Parenthood needs to move on and quit trying to force the government to subsidize its abortion business.
Photo Credit: By Brian Turner (Flickr: My Trusty Gavel) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons.
