Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill filed an amicus brief with the US Supreme Court Thursday arguing that states have the authority to deny abortion clinics the label of Medicaid providers.
Hill the attorneys general from 18 other states are asking the Supreme Court to clarify whether Planned Parenthood has the right to sue states when they are denied the ability to accept Medicaid funding. The litigation began nearly 10 years ago, when the Indiana General Assembly passed a law stating that abortion providers could not be designated Medicaid providers. Federal courts invalidated the law, and the Supreme Court refused to review it.
The brief states that, “private enforcement of the provider choice plan requirement undermines the contractual nature of Medicaid and the related political accountability Congress implemented. Medicaid is a federal spending program, not a civil-rights statute.”
