The director of the state Department of Human Services has appealed to the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals a September ruling that said the state must resume providing Medicaid funding for all patients who use Planned Parenthood services in Arkansas.
Human Services Director Cindy Gillespie's appeal, filed Thursday, is the latest maneuver in the legal disputes that have followed the July 2015 release of videos that activists said showed Planned Parenthood clinics in other states profited from the sale of fetal tissue after abortions.
Planned Parenthood said the videos were heavily edited and misleading. A grand jury in Houston later indicted the video-makers on tampering charges, but those charges have since been dismissed, Harris County court records show.
The videos' impact continues to play out nationally and in states like Arkansas, where Gov. Asa Hutchinson issued a directive to stop Medicaid -- the state- and U.S.-funded health insurance program for people with low incomes -- from reimbursing Planned Parenthood for all services.
Medicaid funds already couldn't be used to pay for abortions in Arkansas, but Hutchinson's directive aimed to also stop the program from paying for well-woman exams, cancer screenings, testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections, pregnancy testing, options counseling, Food and Drug Administration-approved birth-control methods and other services.
Gillespie is appealing U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker's Sept. 29 ruling, which expanded a preliminary injunction that stopped the state from cutting off funding for three women who sued the state in September 2015 over Hutchinson's order. The appeal was filed Thursday.
The women, known as Jane Does 1, 2 and 3, joined Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, which operated clinics in Little Rock and Fayetteville, in filing suit.
The initial injunction covered only those plaintiffs. Baker's September ruling extended the injunction to cover all "patients who seek to obtain, or desire to obtain, health services in Arkansas at [Planned Parenthood of the Heartland] through the Medicaid program," after the judge in January certified the case as a class-action suit.
The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last month heard oral arguments on whether the preliminary injunction applying to the three women should stand, but it has not yet issued a ruling.
Arkansas Solicitor General Lee Rudofsky argued that the state could discontinue Medicaid funding to a specific provider for ethical reasons, while Jennifer Sandman, a Planned Parenthood attorney, argued that the state's basis for excluding the clinics violates federal laws.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, also in September, affirmed a federal judge's preliminary injunction preventing Louisiana from terminating a Planned Parenthood affiliate's access to the Medicaid program.
Information for this article was contributed by Linda Satter of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Metro on 10/28/2016