Planned Parenthood to Continue Offering Range of Services in Lafayette

(Indianapolis) –   Six months after an Indiana law attempting to restrict services at the Lafayette Planned Parenthood was ruled unconstitutional, Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky (PPINK) announced it has received a license to continue offering a full range of reproductive health care to the Lafayette community.

“Women in the Lafayette area will continue to have the safe and legal option of non-surgical abortion available to them, along with Pap tests, breast cancer screenings, birth control, STD testing and treatment and annual wellness exams,” said PPINK President and CEO Betty Cockrum. “We’ve been providing health care to the Lafayette community for more than 40 years, and we’re proud to continue to do so.”

SEA 546, passed in the 2015 legislative session, takes effect July 1, 2015 and requires abortion facilities that provide only non-surgical abortions to obtain an abortion clinic license from the Indiana State Department of Health. SEA 546 also permits abortion providers to seek a waiver from certain licensing requirements if the provider can demonstrate that patient safety isn’t compromised.

A previous law, SEA 371, was passed in 2013 and was in December 2014 ruled unconstitutional by U.S. District Court Judge Jane Magnus-Stinson because it singled out one facility—the Planned Parenthood health center in Lafayette—and excluded private physician’s offices from the abortion licensing requirements. The law also singled out abortion facilities by prohibiting  waivers from certain requirements, unlike other health care facilities.

Under SEA 371, the Lafayette health center would have been required to meet the same standards as a facility that offers surgical abortions, even though no surgical procedures are offered there. Non-surgical abortion is an early-term procedure that has been safely used in the United States for more than a decade.

Indiana lawmakers passed SEA 546 to address Judge Magnus-Stinson’s ruling. Following the law’s passage, PPINK applied for and received a license from the Indiana State Department of Health to continue to offer non-surgical abortions at Lafayette.

“SEA 371 was a targeted attempt aimed at ending access to safe, legal abortion by trying to shut down a Planned Parenthood health care center that also provides preventive care to more than 4,000 women and men each year,” Cockrum said. “We’re grateful to the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana for demonstrating the irrational basis for that law.”   

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Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky (PPINK) provides high-quality health care to nearly 67,000 men and women each year at our health centers across two states. Our centers are staffed by skilled clinicians and highly trained health care professionals. 93% of our nonprofit’s services are preventive in nature and include Pap tests, breast and testicular cancer screenings, birth control, STD testing and treatment, and annual wellness exams. Through the Sara and Albert Reuben Partners in Health Education initiative, PPINK also provides sexuality and reproductive health education programs, equipping people to make responsible decisions so that families thrive in Indiana and Kentucky.

PPINK’s doors are open to all who need care and we provide our services in a confidential, compassionate and non-judgmental manner. We accept Medicaid and insurance.