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Texas is, once again, trying to
block women’s access to reproductive care, by
attempting to deny Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood. The group, as
well as other women’s health providers, and a group of needy women in that
state, have joined forces to sue the state.
The governor of Texas, Greg
Abbott, is seriously touting the defunct argument that Planned Parenthood is
selling fetuses on the black market. You may remember earlier this year that
alleged footage arose of Planned Parenthood employees negotiating the sale of
fetal tissue, which have been proven false. That hasn’t stopped Republican
governments from trying to use that as a club with which to beat the
organization.
And in Texas, the state has
also claimed that Planned Parenthood has been improperly handling fetal tissue
and billing Medicaid for procedures that were done. Planned Parenthood
maintains that all these allegations are false. Considering what the governor
is willing to say, it doesn’t seem particularly far-fetched that the state
would simply lie about other things too.
It seems pretty obvious that
this is yet another politically motivated attack against Planned Parenthood and
women’s reproductive rights in Texas. In 2011 the state cut the organization from
their family planning programs, which they then claimed reached almost as many
women as the previous year. But observers have stated over and over that the
new plan is woefully underserving women in need.
Planned Parenthood currently
receives about $500 million in federal funding, much of it in the form of
Medicare reimbursements. Cutting off Medicare funding in Texas would be a
serious blow to an important organization that is already under siege by the
American right. However, there is some precedent that could help keep hope
alive. Federal judges have already struck down similar attempts in Arkansas and
Louisiana when those states attempted to deny Medicaid funds to Planned
Parenthood.
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