Texas Fully Defunds Planned Parenthood Abortion Business Today – By Karen Townsend (Hot Air) / Feb 3 2021
Texas taxpayers will no longer be on the hook for financing Planned Parenthood through the state Medicaid program as of today. Last November the state won a victory in court after a years-long struggle to end the funding. Today that victory goes into effect.
The legal battle between Texas and Planned Parenthood for Medicaid funding continued for over five years. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the state in November, agreeing that Texas can remove Planned Parenthood from the program for violating state policies. Medicaid providers are required to follow Medicaid policies, along with state and federal law. The Texas Office of the Inspector General (OIG) found Planned Parenthood violated federal regulations when it altered abortion procedures to harvest baby body parts. The OIG terminated Planned Parenthood’s provider contract. Planned Parenthood was notified in early January by the Texas Health and Human Services Commission that the cutoff date for their contract with the state is February 3, 2021. The commission also denied Planned Parenthood’s request for a delay in implementation.
Houston has the largest Planned Parenthood abortion center in the United States. Planned Parenthood facilities in Texas receive about $3.1 million in taxpayer funding from Medicaid annually. An estimated 8,000 Texans use its facilities every year in the state. So, this is a substantial victory for the state. Planned Parenthood argued that eliminating the funding from the state will hurt women in Texas seeking basic health care. Abortion, though, is the core mission of Planned Parenthood, as verified in 2019 by then- CEO Leana Wen. The trope that abortion is just one small option available to Planned Parenthood’s patients is malarkey. Abortion is a very profitable business for the organization. It’s other services, such as providing birth control and cancer screenings are a lesser part of its business model.
