Ind. Senate approves cutting Planned Parenthood funds
ndiana could become the first state to end Medicaid coverage for Planned Parenthood services, after the Senate on Tuesday approved a bill that would cut ff taxpayer money to the reproductive health-care provider.
“The taxpayers will no longer fund an organization that provides abortion as part of their services that they give to the public,” said Sen. Michael Young, R-Indianapolis, a co-sponsor of the measure.
The Senate voted 35-13 to approve House Bill 1210, which also shortens the window in which women can have abortions and mandates that doctors make certain statements to patients seeking the procedure.
“It does in my opinion help women,” said the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Patricia Miller, R-Indianapolis. “It helps them with objective scientific information.”
The measure requires doctors to tell women seeking abortions that the procedure has been linked to infertility. The bill also sets 20 weeks as the cutoff when a woman no longer may seek an abortion. The current cutoff is viability, which a doctor determines, usually around 24 weeks.