Governor Bobby Jindal continues his quest for the White House, and he will participate in the CNN Republican debate this Wednesday. He practiced some of his debate responses with the National Press Club last Thursday.
“Congress has the constitutional responsibility to fund government,” Jindal declared. “Absolutely they should defund Planned Parenthood.”
Planned Parenthood does not do abortions in Louisiana, but Jindal says the web-posted videos produced by the anti-abortion group Center for Medical Progress prove the family-planning organization is “barbaric”.
“The left, they want to investigate the groups that made this video,” Jindal said with an air of outrage. “I know that the President doesn’t have time to watch these videos. He’s got time to send the Department of Justice to intervene in the lawsuit against us.”
The Jindal administration ordered an investigation of Planned Parenthood within hours of the videos being posted to the internet, then subsequently issued an order to cancel the state’s Medicaid contract with the non-profit agency. Planned Parenthood took the issue to federal court, asking for a restraining order against the state’s at-will cancellation of the contract. Otherwise, the contract ends tomorrow.
The U.S. Department of Justice weighed in on the lawsuit, saying the contract cancellation violates federal law.
“We can provide these services without Planned Parenthood,” Jindal told the National Press Club. “There’s no reason for them to get one more penny of our taxpayer dollars. The reality is, there are hundreds of other providers -- where men and women and patients can go in the state of Louisiana – that are not using their resources, their facilities, for these barbaric acts.”
That statement by Jindal reflects the state’s response to the lawsuit, submitting a list of alternate family planning providers — over 2000 of them. Federal Judge John de Gravelles didn’t buy it, though, since the list included dentists, laboratories and nursing homes. The judge asked the state to correct the list, and the amended version said there were only 29 possible alternative providers.
Meanwhile, Jindal had this to say when asked about what’s wrong with Obamacare: “It makes no sense to decrease access. It makes no sense to have bureaucrats interfering between doctors and their patients.”
While a decision was expected in the lawsuit today, the state announced late Friday that it is changing its defense to the suit. Instead of giving no reason, simply using the 30-day opt-out provision of the Medicaid contract, the administration will now claim that the contract is being cancelled “for cause”. The new reasoning states that because Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast (the parent organization of the two clinics in Louisiana) settled false claims allegations in Texas, Planned Parenthood has violated Louisiana Medicaid provider rules.