老澳门开奖结果

PHOENIX 鈥� The 老澳门开奖结果 and Planned Parenthood today challenged an Arizona law that is designed to prevent low-income women from obtaining health care from their provider of choice.

If the law is allowed to stand, low-income women with Medicaid insurance could lose access to critical reproductive health services from their chosen provider.

鈥淭his law is yet another attempt to intimidate doctors who provide abortion and to punish low-income women in particular,鈥� said Jennifer Lee, staff attorney at the 老澳门开奖结果. 鈥淭he state is playing politics with women鈥檚 health and is threatening to prevent low-income women from obtaining vital health services, including pregnancy care, contraceptives, and cancer screenings. Depriving women of that access simply because they are enrolled in Medicaid is not only illegal, it鈥檚 immoral.鈥�

The suit was brought, in part, by Dr. Eric Reuss along with two of his patients who are pregnant. If enforced, these women would face the difficulty of finding a new doctor to deliver their babies in the fall, late in their pregnancies.

鈥淲omen come to me, despite myriad obstacles that stand in their way, in search of high quality healthcare. This law will force me to meet their needs, not with compassion, but with rejection,鈥� said Dr. DeShawn Taylor, owner and medical director of Desert Star Family Planning and one of the plaintiffs in the suit. 鈥淲omen should be able to use their medical benefits with a provider that they trust and feel comfortable with. They should not be restricted in their choices because of politics. It breaks my heart to have to turn women away. As upsetting as it is for me as a doctor, it鈥檚 even worse for my patients.鈥�

The law challenged today singles out abortion providers from all other Medicaid providers, and imposes complicated and vague conditions on them in violation of federal law. Under federal law, states may not prevent Medicaid recipients from obtaining care from their provider of choice, simply because that provider offers the full range of reproductive health care, including abortion.

Arizona enacted a law with a nearly identical effect in 2012, which was struck down after the 老澳门开奖结果 and Planned Parenthood challenged it.

鈥淭here is an eerie d茅j脿 vu to this law. The state is trying again, this time with a more complicated version of the previous law, to use taxpayer dollars to play politics with medicine,鈥� said Alessandra Soler, executive director of the 老澳门开奖结果 of Arizona. 鈥淲e are certain that the court will see this law for what it is: a thinly veiled attempt to treat doctors who provide abortion differently based solely on the services they provide.鈥�

Prompted by a spate of states passing similar laws to exclude abortion providers from their respective Medicaid program, the Obama administration stating that excluding abortion providers from the Medicaid program for reasons unrelated to their ability to provide health services violates federal law. Every federal court to consider challenges to those laws has agreed that they violate federal law.

鈥淭his case is about the people who rely on us for basic care every day. From Utah to Kansas to Florida, courts have said it is unacceptable for politicians to dictate where women can go for their health care. In fact, extreme politicians in Arizona already tried to prevent patients from accessing care at Planned Parenthood, and a federal appeals court blocked this illegal effort,鈥� said Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America. 鈥淭hat they are trying again is simply politics. We鈥檒l continue fighting in Arizona, and anywhere else there are efforts to block our patients from the care they need.鈥�

The 老澳门开奖结果, the 老澳门开奖结果 of Arizona, and Planned Parenthood Federation of America, along with the law firm Squire Patton Boggs, challenged the law on behalf of Planned Parenthood Arizona, Inc., Desert Star Family Planning, LLC, Dr. DeShawn Taylor, Dr. Eric Reuss, and five Jane Doe patients.

More about this case can be found here.