A circuit court ruled Monday that Texas and Louisiana can exclude Planned Parenthood from Medicaid funding, a win for the movement to deprive the abortion provider of federal funding.
The Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overruled a district court’s preliminary injunction preventing the exclusion of Planned Parenthood from Medicaid funding. The court of appeals ruled in an 11-5 majority that Planned Parenthood did not have the right to challenge the state’s decisions regarding who receives Medicaid benefits.
Medicaid beneficiaries “have no right under the statute to challenge a State’s determination that a provider is unqualified,” the court’s chief judge wrote in the majority’s opinion. Because Planned Parenthood, or its patients, did not have the right to challenge Texas or Louisiana’s decision to remove it from Medicaid benefits, the states are allowed to proceed with removing the organization from Medicaid funding.
The legal battle over Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood in the two states began in 2015 after the release of controversial undercover videos purporting to show Planned Parenthood employees discussing the sale of fetal tissue. Texas and Louisiana state officials moved to kick the abortion provider out of Medicaid funding, citing the videos as evidence that the organization showed a willingness to profit off the sale of fetal tissue. In 2017, a lower court blocked the states from cutting off the Medicaid funding. – READ MORE
Listen to the insightful Thomas Paine Podcast Below --