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 The new regulations, set to go into effect on Sunday, require
abortion doctors who receive Medicaid payments to certify that a
procedure is "medically necessary" to prevent serious risk to the
woman's health, or that the patient is a victim of rape and incest.
The group, Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest, is seeking to
have the regulations struck down as an unconstitutional violation of
equal protection, said Planned Parenthood spokesman Joshua Decker.
The lawsuit also seeks to prevent the state from enforcing the
regulations.
Decker said the regulation will illegally restrict low-income
Alaskans' access to abortion services.
Decker said a 2001 Alaska Supreme Court decision ruled that the
state must fund medically necessary abortions along with other
medically necessary services for low-income residents.
"State Medicaid in Alaska can't single out abortions and treat them
differently from other Medicaid services," Decker said. "With every
other service, Alaska trusts its medical doctors to adhere to the
best interests of their patients."
A representative for Bill Streur, the Alaska Department of Health
and Human Services Commissioner, did not immediately return calls
for comment.
The representative told the Anchorage Daily News on Wednesday that
Streur would not comment until he had reviewed the lawsuit with
state lawyers.
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Under the regulations set to take effect next week, paperwork
requesting Medicaid reimbursement will include two boxes. Doctors
would check the first box if the patient was the victim of rape or
incest, or the second box to certify that the procedure was
"medically necessary" to prevent serious risk to the woman.
A list of medical conditions — which includes congestive heart
failure, a pregnancy complication called eclampsia, and a
psychiatric disorder — which could put a pregnant woman in "imminent
danger" of damage to a "major bodily function" can be cited as
defining the notion of "medically necessary."
Last summer, at the request of a Democratic state senator who
objected to the regulation — which was then only a proposal — Alaska's Legislative Affairs Agency issued a legal memo on the
abortion regulation, saying the regulation would "likely be found
unconstitutional," NBC's Anchorage affiliate, KTUU, reported in
August.
(Reporting by Chris Francescani; editing by Ken Wills)
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