Supreme Court declines to hear abortion case

Richard Wolf | USA TODAY

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court refused Tuesday to wade back into one of its most controversial subjects: abortion.

The court refused to consider Indiana's appeal of a lower court decision striking down its denial of Medicaid funds to health care providers that perform abortions. The law was challenged by Planned Parenthood.

While federal law blocks the use of government funds to perform most abortions (with exceptions for rape, incest and woman's health), the Indiana ban went further by denying Medicaid funds for other purposes as well. In order to receive Medicaid funds, providers would have to create separate entities for their abortion services. Hospitals were excluded from the law.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit in Chicago ruled that the ban on Medicaid funds was unwarranted because it was not related to Planned Parenthood's ability to perform medical services. But it upheld a ban on federal block grant funds. The high court will let both rulings stand.

The state argued in its brief to the court that taxpayers are forced to subsidize abortions when organizations such as Planned Parenthood get Medicaid funding, as the money frees up other resources for abortions.

Planned Parenthood, which operates 28 Indiana health centers serving about 9,000 people annually, contended its abortions are financed with private funds. By denying Medicaid funding, it said, the state threatened other services, ranging from cancer screening to testing for sexually transmitted diseases.

"Politicians in all 50 states should take note: Blocking Planned Parenthood from funding to provide preventive health care is both unlawful and deeply unpopular," said Cecile Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund. She noted similar efforts to restrict taxpayer funds have been shot down in Arizona, North Carolina, Kansas and Tennessee.

Since its landmark 1973 decision Roe v. Wade established women's right to abortion services, the Supreme Court has been forced to revisit the issue on a sporadic basis. Most of those decisions retained abortion rights. But in 2007, a more conservative court upheld a federal ban on late-term, "partial birth" abortions.

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