Indiana recently stripped the nation’s largest abortion chain store from receiving Medicaid funding, a decision that has the Obama administration fuming.  The White House has threatened to hold $4.2 billion in federal Medicaid funds from Indiana unless it restores Planned Parenthood as a Medicaid provider, claiming — as does Planned Parenthood’s national leadership — that the decision leaves women without reliable gynecological care.  Is that true?  Live Action Films made phone calls to PP clinics across the state, and as it turns out, even Planned Parenthood admits that women can find that care easily in their communities:

Planned Parenthood staffers at all 16 locations admitted that Medicaid women would still have access to medical care after the defunding. Staffers suggested local health clinics or state-assigned primary care physicians for Medicaid patients: “Your primary care doctor should be able to do [a Well Woman exam,] I mean, that’s what they’re there for,” said a Planned Parenthood in Michigan City, while the Merrillville Planned Parenthood said of a local community health center, “They have the same services we have.”

“According to Planned Parenthood’s own statistics, their 28 clinics serve less than 1% of Indiana Medicaid patients, yet they do more than 50% of Indiana abortions,” notes Rose. There are over 800 other Medicaid providers available to these women in the counties with Planned Parenthood clinics alone.”

Even Indiana doctors agree that defunding Planned Parenthood in Indiana would have little to no effect on the care and services provided to Medicaid patients.

“If Planned Parenthood only sees 1% of Medicaid patients in the state, and that’s their statistic, it doesn’t seem like they are making a big imprint in the first place,” said Dr. Geoff Cly, at the Northeast Ob/GYN Women’s Health Group in Fort Wayne, IN. “I know in our group, we currently have capacity to see more patients and I’m sure many other groups could easily take care of the 1% that’s left if Planned Parenthood no longer took care of those patients.”

Be sure to read Live Action’s fact-check of Planned Parenthood’s claims in Indiana. PP claims 9300 Medicaid patients in Indiana, which is less than 1% of all Medicaid patients in the state. They have 28 locations in Indiana, which would be 3.5% of all qualified Medicaid providers in the state if Planned Parenthood still qualified. Those 28 clinics performed 5,580 abortions last year, which comes to 200 per clinic, or darned near one a weekday in each clinic — and over half of all abortions performed in Indiana in 2010. It doesn’t appear that non-abortion work is so significant that it can’t get absorbed by non-abortionists in the vicinity, as even Planned Parenthood clinics themselves point out to callers.

If you agree, sign the petition demanding that Health and Human Services back down from its threat to extort Indiana through federal Medicaid funding on behalf of Planned Parenthood. Better yet, call your Congressional Representative and Senators and ask them why the executive branch is interfering with Indiana’s judgment on Medicaid clinics on behalf of the nation’s leading abortion chain store.