Eye Recommend --- Obama Admin Warns GOP on Defunding Planned Parenthood

OBAMA ADMIN WARNS GOP: TRY TO ILLEGALLY DEFUND PLANNED PARENTHOOD, THINGS WILL END BADLY FOR YOU, by Jameson Parker --
http://www.addictinginfo.org/2015/08/14/obama-admin-warns-gop-try-to-illegally-defund-planned-parenthood-things-will-end-badly-for-you/

what eye thynk:  President Obama and the Department of Health and Human Services are making it abundantly clear--just because you don't like a law, doesn't give you the right to ignore the law. (Any underlines are mine.)

 "The Obama administration has put its money where its mouth is in defense of Planned Parenthood.  As Republican-led states continue to target the non-profit health clinic over fictional claims hurled by anti-abortion radicals, Democrats in Congress and President Obama have drawn a bright red line in the sand:  If you mess with the health of millions of women, you're stepping into a world of hurt. 

Hoping to call Obama's bluff, Alabama and Louisiana have both moved to block Medicaid funds to Planned Parenthood, hoping the lack of government money will force the clinics to wither on the vine.  The goal is simple: Destroy Planned Parenthood to prevent women from having abortions by making it impossible for the to find a place to get one.  Is that legal?  No.  No it is not...

...The Department of Health and Human Services isn't taking these infractions lightly.  The Obama administration has sent a letter through the HHS to both states notifying them that blocking hundreds of thousands of dollars in vital government funding to the clinics over an ideological vendetta is way out of line.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, a unit of HHS, has notified Alabama and Louisiana, which have taken action to terminate their Medicaid provider agreements with Planned Parenthood, that they may be in conflict with federal law...

...HHS said it provided both states with guidance it released in a June 2011 memo, which says states aren't permitted to exclude providers from Medicaid solely on the basis of the range of medical services they provide...

...In other words, the HHS warned these states all the way back in 2011 that they were not to do the exact thing they are trying to do unless they found that a provider was violating the law...and Planned Parenthood hasn't committed fraud or criminal acts, despite what conservatives have been screaming about.  In fact, in every single investigation launched thus far--across multiple states and many individual clinics--not a single case of wrongdoing has been uncovered...

...Louisiana's unrelenting attack on Planned Parenthood over the edited videos is particularly egregious because the state's few clinics don't actually provide abortions."

I wish I could underline the above sentence twice--in neon scarlet.  Louisiana is planning to defund clinics that serve the poor in order to stop something that already doesn't happen.  It's pointless; and, for a state that prides itself on it's conservative brand of "Christianity," unbelievably mean-spirited.

"If the states continue to try to kill Planned Parenthood illegally, there will be a federal hearing scheduled.  If they don't drop it then, the HHS will cut federal Medicaid funds to the entire state (a potential loss of millions that states will then have to come up with on their own.)  They're playing a dangerous game here."

Louisiana in particular, is already facing a serious budget shortfall.  Governor and presidential candidate Bobby Jindal has continued to deny Louisana's poor access to healthcare by refusing the Affordable Care Act's Medicaid expansion funds.  I'd love to hear Mr. Jindal explain why he thought further hindering poor women's access to breast exams and pap smears was a cause important enough to justify making the state's financial status worse.

Lawmakers in Alabama and Louisiana should be embarrassed of themselves.  If you ever wake up to discover that you've received a letter from the HHS letting you know your plan to screw the poor is so repugnant that it actually crosses the line into being illegal, you're the bad guy.

Addendum:
Despite warnings sent by HHS to Alabama and Louisiana, Arkansas' Governor Asa Hutchinson (R) has ordered the contract between Medicaid and Planned Parenthood in his state to be terminated within 30 days.