Planned Parenthood sues Texas to save funding

Planned Parenthood announced Monday that it has filed suit against Texas to preserve its state funding.

 

The lawsuit is intended to block a decision by Gov. Greg Abbott (R) made in late October to cut off funding to Planned Parenthood through the state’s Medicaid program.

 

“Today Planned Parenthood is taking Texas to court on behalf of the 13,500 patients who come to us for care through Medicaid,” the group’s president, Cecile Richards, announced on Twitter.
“By canceling Planned Parenthood’s Medicaid contract politicians are telling women where they can and cannot go for reproductive health care,” added Richards, whose mother, Ann Richards, was Texas’s last Democratic governor, in 1995.

 

Abbott’s move is expected to draw a legal challenge, as have similar efforts in Louisiana, Alabama and Arkansas. One federal judge already ruled that Louisiana must keep making Medicaid payments to Planned Parenthood for two more weeks as the case continues.

 

Supporters of Planned Parenthood argue that cutting the organization out of Medicaid violates federal law stating that beneficiaries must be allowed to choose from any qualified health provider that is willing to serve them.

 

Read More: Planned Parenthood sues Texas to save funding | TheHill