Texas has told Planned Parenthood clinics it is blocking them from the state’s Medicaid program, making it the latest of several Republican-led states trying to strip federal and state dollars from the women’s health and abortion provider.
Planned Parenthood clinics have committed “serious Medicaid program violations,” the Texas inspector general wrote in a letter sent to the centers Monday. The agency cited undercover videos released over the summer highlighting how some clinics provide aborted fetal tissue for medical research. Several of the videos included footage from officials with Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast, which includes some clinics in Texas.
Amid controversy over the videos, Planned Parenthood has banned its centers from getting reimbursed for the tissue. But Texas is still trying to block the group’s Medicaid funds, saying the videos show its doctors violated medical ethics and federal law by altering the method of abortions to procure certain organs and allowed unsanitary conditions.
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“The state has determined that you and your Planned Parenthood affiliates are no longer capable of performing medical services in a professionally competent, safe, legal and ethical manner,” the agency wrote.
Two federal courts in the past have ruled states can’t block Planned Parenthood from getting Medicaid funds if it meets the requirements of a qualified provider. Planned Parenthood isn’t allowed to use state or federal dollars on abortions themselves, but abortion opponents have argued that’s an irrevelent distinction because getting taxpayer dollars frees up other money for abortion services.
Alliance Defending Freedom, which opposes abortion, applauded Texas’ move, saying the money should instead be awarded to health centers that don’t offer the procedure.
“Texas is right to recognize that taxpayer money should go to fund local community health centers, not to subsidize a scandal-ridden, billion-dollar abortion business,” said Alliance Defending Freedom counsel Kellie Fiedorek. “Texans shouldn’t be forced to give their money to Planned Parenthood, which was caught in authenticated undercover videos trafficking aborted babies’ body parts and has a long history of abusive and potentially fraudulent billing practices.”
Louisiana also has tried to block Medicaid funds from going to Planned Parenthood clinics, but a federal judge rebuffed the effort on Monday with a court order permitting the payments to continue flowing for at least two weeks.
