Indiana’s Planned Parenthood affiliate remains cut off from state Medicaid funding even with the expiration of a federal ban on such payments to abortion providers for any healthcare services.
The nationwide funding ban that Republicans included in last year’s “big, beautiful” law expired July 4. That leaves states to determine whether Planned Parenthood can receive payment from the program for low-income individuals for non-abortion care.
Indiana officials, however, are seeking federal court approval to enforce a 2011 state law that prohibits any state funding to abortion-providing organizations.
Federal courts blocked that law from taking effect and Planned Parenthood continued receiving Indiana Medicaid payments for more than a decade before the federal ban was imposed last summer.
But recent court filings say Planned Parenthood has agreed to “remain suspended from Indiana’s Medicaid program” while awaiting a decision from the Chicago-based 7th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Jennifer Allen, CEO of Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates, denounced the state’s court action, saying “Indiana is doing all it can to block patients from care.”
“This isn’t about abortion; Planned Parenthood has been banned from providing abortion in Indiana since 2022,” Allen said in a statement Monday. “It’s about whether people with low incomes get to see the provider they trust for essential health care like birth control, cancer screenings, STI testing and wellness exams. State leaders have made a political decision to cut people off from care — at a time when Indiana’s health care safety net has already stretched to a breaking point.”
Indiana’s House Enrolled Act 1210, approved in 2011, bars state agencies from contracting with or giving grants to any organization that performs abortions, or has a facility where abortions are performed. The law exempts hospitals and ambulatory surgical centers.
Planned Parenthood’s Indiana affiliate won a permanent injunction in 2013, with U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Walton Pratt ruling that using the ban to deny Planned Parenthood Medicaid funding was unlawful because it would deny patients “a free choice of medical provider.”
But the U.S. Supreme Court overturned that logic in 2025 when it agreed with attorneys arguing that federal Medicaid law didn’t spell that out.
That ruling prompted Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita’s office to then seek dismissal of the order blocking the state funding ban.
The office argued in an appeals court filing last month for quick action on its request, arguing there was no reason for “keeping the injunction on life support.”
State data shows Indiana paid Planned Parenthood $1.6 million in 2025 and $1.7 million in 2024 for Medicaid services.
The attorney general’s office, however, said in a recent court filing that the state “has no intention of attempting to recoup past Medicaid payments” made to Planned Parenthood.
Pratt, the Indianapolis-based federal judge, said in a ruling last week that she was “inclined to grant” that state’s request to throw out her 2013 order blocking the Indiana funding ban but held off as the case was pending with the appeals court in Chicago.
Attorneys for both sides have filed legal arguments with the appeals court, which as of Monday had not issued any rulings or set a date for hearing oral arguments.
Indiana Capital Chronicle is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Indiana Capital Chronicle maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Niki Kelly for questions: info@indianacapitalchronicle.com
