Arizona Medicaid officials have agreed not to try to cut off family planning dollars from Planned Parenthood— at least not yet.
State and federal law already bar the use of taxpayer dollars for elective abortions. But abortion opponents insist that the money for general family planning might end up indirectly subsidizing abortions. So a new law set to take effect this Saturday allows the head of the state's Medicaid program to cut off family planning dollars unless providers like Planned Parenthood prove to his satisfaction that absolutely no taxpayer dollars fund abortion services, directly or indirectly.
Planned Parenthood sued last month to overturn the law. But attorney Diana Salgado said Monday she will not be seeking an injunction to keep the law from being enforced while the case makes its way through federal court.
She said the state is still in the process of hiring an attorney to defend the law. "Until the state does that, we have received some assurance that the state will not enforce the law, at least until that's done," Salgado said. "We are in discussions with the state about its intentions to enforce the law."
Hanging in the balance is whether about 2,500 individuals who get family planning services through Planned Parenthood will be forced to seek care elsewhere. Salgado said the new restriction pushed by abortion foes runs afoul of Medicaid rules that allow recipients to get their care from any qualified provider.