Planned Parenthood Sues State of Texas



Activists rally in support of Planned Parenthood in Austin, TX. Photo: scATX | FlickrCC.

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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