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BATON ROUGE, LA, August 25, 2015 (LifeSiteNews) – Planned Parenthood is suing to get its Medicaid funding back in Louisiana.

In a lawsuit filed on Tuesday, the nation’s largest abortion company claimed that its Texas and Louisiana chapter “provides critically needed family planning and preventive health services to thousands of women and men in underserved Orleans and East Baton Rouge Parishes through the Medicaid program.”

“As is required by federal law,” says the lawsuit, “Medicaid enrollees may seek services from a participating provider of their choice and have those services covered by Medicaid.”

The lawsuit asks the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana “to protect [Planned Parenthood of the Gulf Coast] patients’ access to –and PPGC’s own ability to provide – these critical medical services.”

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Louisiana governor and GOP presidential candidate Bobby Jindal pulled Planned Parenthood’s funding earlier this month, after several undercover videos showed Planned Parenthood senior officials discussing illegal abortions and illegal fetal harvesting conducted by the abortion giant.

“We're in court today to protect over 5,200 people's access to cancer screenings, well-woman exams, and basic health care in Louisiana,” said Planned Parenthood CEO and president Cecile Richards in a statement.

However, a Jindal spokesperson said that “Planned Parenthood is flailing. This lawsuit is without merit and the state will aggressively defend our right to cancel the contract.”

Mike Reed told LifeSiteNews that “the Medicaid provider contract between the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals and Planned Parenthood gives either party the right to cancel the contract at will with a 30-day notice. Governor Jindal and DHH chose to exercise that right to cancel.”  

Louisiana is one of five states that have cancelled state funding for Planned Parenthood. Last week, Jindal responded to a Planned Parenthood protest at the governor’s mansion by playing the undercover videos describing Planned Parenthood’s illegal abortions and fetal harvesting.

Planned Parenthood’s claims of illegal activity mirror those of the Obama administration, which has threatened to sue states that defund Planned Parenthood. Whether a federal lawsuit would be successful is uncertain, according to Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Casey Mattox.