AUSTIN, Texas, Nov. 23 (UPI) ─ Texas chapters of Planned Parenthood and nearly a dozen individual patients filed a lawsuit against the state Monday over the government’s plan to cut Medicaid funding.
Last month, the Texas inspector general advised the state’s three Planned Parenthood affiliates that officials would terminate the organization’s ability to provide health care through the federal health program, which is used by millions of low income residents.
Monday’s lawsuit impacts the organization’s operations in clinics located in Houston, Dallas and San Antonio ─ metropolitan areas home to about 15 million residents.
The state’s move is a response to national outcry over a series of “undercover” videos released earlier this year which purport to show agency personnel discussing the sale of fetal tissue. One of the videos was taken in a Houston clinic.
The videos were recorded and released by anti-abortion activists.
Planned Parenthood and 10 individual patients filed a lawsuit Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas to halt the government’s plan, saying it’s a violation of federal statute and the 14th Amendment that guarantees equal protection. The suit says Texas’ move would prevent patients from choosing their own medical provider without sufficient justification.
In October, Texas Inspector General Stuart Bowen alleged various violations committed by the birth control organization ─ including claims that doctors were using alternative abortion methods and creating an unsanitary work environment.
The state’s moves are intended to strip the organization of its government funding.
“Ending the Medicaid participation of Planned Parenthood affiliates in the State of Texas is another step in providing greater access to safe healthcare for women while protecting our most vulnerable ─ the unborn,” Gov. Greg Abbott said at the time.
Federal health officials, though, have said Texas’ actions may be illegal.
“Longstanding Medicaid laws prohibit states from restricting individuals who have coverage through Medicaid from receiving care from a qualified provider,” Department of Health and Human Services spokeswoman Marissa Padilla said. “By restricting which provider a woman could choose to receive care from, women could lose access to critical preventive care, such as cancer screenings.”
Planned Parenthood has repeatedly denied wrongdoing and claimed the “undercover” videos are heavily edited. Organization President Cecile Richards last month announced that her agency would stop receiving money, called “reimbursements,” when they donate fetal tissue from abortions.
Richards said the amount Planned Parenthood received from reimbursements was exceptionally small, but that the move was intended to defuse the growing controversy.
“The real goal of these extremists has nothing to do with our fetal tissue donation compliance process but is instead to ban abortion in the U.S. and block women from getting any health care from Planned Parenthood … Today, we’re taking their smokescreen away,” she said at the time.
Bowen’s office will now examine scores of documents subpoenaed from Planned Parenthood and determine whether to open a criminal investigation.
Abortion is a controversial issue in largely Republican Texas. Last week, the U.S.Supreme Court agreed to hear a challenge to a Texas law that would limit the number of abortion clinics in the state. It will be the first major abortion case heard by the nation’s high court in nearly a decade.
