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August 22, 2012
Court Says Texas Can Ban Medicaid Funds To Planned Parenthood -- For Now
State ban on funds for clinics affiliated with abortion providers still under review.
Planned Parenthood clinics in Texas will likely lose state funds following a federal appeals court ruling Tuesday.
The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Texas can restrict state Medicaid funds to Planned Parenthood, due to the clinics’ affiliation with abortion providers, until an October trial is resolved.
The three-judge panel said Planned Parenthood failed to show it is "likely to succeed in demonstrating that the ... restriction on promoting elective abortions violates their First Amendment rights," notes Baptist Press.
After Texas banned funds from the Texas Medicaid Women's Health Program going to groups linked to abortion providers in 2011, Planned Parenthood sued the state, arguing that the clinics do not perform abortions but instead provide family planning and healthcare to low-income women.
The appeals court decision lifts a temporary injunction that “called for the funding to continue pending an October trial on Planned Parenthood's challenge to the law.” Texas may now implement its ban on clinics affiliated with abortion providers while the case is pending.
The Texas Women's Health Program previously ran on $40 million of federal and state funds. However, as the Los Angeles Times reports, “federal officials withdrew their contribution earlier this year when the state moved to exclude Planned Parenthood clinics.” Without federal contributions, the program budget dwindles to just $5 million.
However, Texas Gov. Rick Perry released a statement saying that “Texas will continue providing important health services for women through this program in spite of the Obama Administration's disregard for our state law and unilateral decision to defund this program.”
CT reported on the funding fight between Susan G. Komen and Planned Parenthood earlier this year, and previously fact-checked claims about Planned Parenthood in 2011.
Comments
Planned Parenthood, a private organization specializing in abortion, has no right to our tax dollars. Especially when they are using tax dollars to promote and perform abortion, and when their history is that of racist eugenicist Margaret Sanger.
The organization has a right to exist under the law, but there is no natural entitlement for them to the tax dollars of the citizenry. If the pro-abortionists desire this type of organization to exist, let them crawl to the 100 billion dollar progressive money machine for support rather than the taxpayer.
The pro-abortionists sure seem to be ready to take money from everyone else for abortion rather than to fund it themselves.
Posted By: J. Thomas | August 27, 2012 1:45 PM
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