By Dave Andrusko
As anticipated, on Monday Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast filed a federal lawsuit in response to the October decision by the state of Texas to begin the process to end the organization’s Medicaid funding.
Similar court challenges have been filed in other states , including Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Utah.
In their lawsuit, PP Gulf Coast, joined by ten patients, argue (among other consideration) that the decision to defund violates Medicaid’s “freedom of choice provision” and violates the 14th Amendment by subjecting the organization to “unfavorable treatment without adequate justification.”
As NRL News Today reported, in a strongly worded five-page letter to PP Gulf Coast, Stuart Bowen, the inspector general of the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, wrote
The State has determined that you and your Planned Parenthood affiliates are no longer capable of performing medical services in a professional competent, safe, legal, and ethical manner.
Your termination and that of all your affiliates will not affect access to care in this State because there are thousands of alternative providers in Texas, including federally qualified health centers, Medicaid-certified rural health clinics, and other health providers across the state that participate in the Texas Woman’s Health Program and Medicaid.
Bowen alludes to the Center for Medical Progress undercover videos that showed various high-ranking Planned Parenthood officials discussing the sale of aborted babies’ organs.
Bowen’s letter also cites evidence of Medicaid fraud at Planned Parenthood affiliates in Texas, referring to “reliable information indicating a pattern of illegal billing practices by Planned Parenthood affiliates.” According to Texas Right to Life, “Several Planned Parenthood locations were caught and charged for fraudulent billing of Medicaid services in recent years, forcing the abortion giant into several penalties and settlements.