Planned Parenthood closing 5 Indiana clinics

Planned Parenthood will close five health clinics across central Indiana after losing some of its federal grant money to
provide family planning services to low-income women.

The clinics in Anderson, Franklin, Kokomo, Shelbyville and
Indianapolis will close over the next six months, Planned Parenthood of Indiana said in a statement provided to The Associated
Press yesterday.

The five centers, none of which provide abortions, serve a total of about 8,500 patients, the
statement said.

At a time when unemployment in Indiana continues to grow, and more people are uninsured and unable
to afford quality health care, "we are very concerned that these funding changes will dramatically reduce" the number
of residents who will be served, the statement said.

Planned Parenthood expects to lose some of the funding it
receives in federal grants administered by the Indiana State Department of Health. The grants were used to help pay some of
the costs for patient treatment.

Starting in October, the not-for-profit Indiana Family Health Council will take
over administering $2 million in grants, some of which previously went to Planned Parenthood. The council will require clinics
that receive grants to charge women on a sliding scale depending on their income.

The poorest women will receive
exams, lab work and contraceptives for free, said Gayla Winston, the council’s president.

"If you take our
funds, you have to run that whole program at that site by our rules," Winston said.

Planned Parenthood said
the reduction in funds will also affect clinics not set to close. The not-for-profit group decided that "many of our
sites must now become fully self-sustaining, or independent, because of the restrictions placed on the funding," the
statement read.

The agency provides abortions at clinics elsewhere in Indianapolis and Bloomington, and in and
Merrillville.