Judge blocks bid by state to scrub PP from Medicaid

A Texas judge on Wednesday temporarily blocked Republican leaders from kicking Planned Parenthood out of Medicaid, as the nonprofit provider claims the effort did not follow procedure and could unjustly strip some 8,000 low-income women of critical care including birth control, STI treatments and cancer screenings.

State health officials had given women on Medicaid until Wednesday to find alternatives to Planned Parenthood for the non-abortion services. Planned Parenthood and other women’s health advocates have warned there are few other providers willing to provide the care, in part because the state’s reimbursement rate is among the lowest in the country.

On Wednesday, the group filed an emergency lawsuit to prevent the state from moving forward.

Gov. Greg Abbott “is not interested in doing what’s best for Texans, and he has made it clear that he will continue to play political games regardless of the cost to the people he was elected to serve,” Dyana LimonMercado, the head of Planned Parenthood Texas Votes, said in a statement.

A hearing on the litigation has been set for Feb. 17 in Travis County District Court.

Abbott and other Republican officials have been trying for years to kick the nonprofit out of Medicaid, citing an undercover video from 2015 purporting to show the group illegally selling fetal tissue from abortions. The claims were never substantiated, and it is legal for Planned Parenthood to be reimbursed at cost for donating tissue for medical research and other purposes.

The video “plainly showed Planned Parenthood admitting to morally bankrupt and unlawful conduct,” Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement earlier this year.

Late last year, the conservative-led U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a lower court’s ruling that had blocked the state’s effort. Planned Parenthood asked Texas health officials for at least six months to help transition about 8,000 Medicaid patients to other providers. The state gave it approximately two months.

Planned Parenthood said the state’s decision will disproportionately impact Black, Latina and indigenous women who are more likely to rely on safety-net health programs after years of discriminatory practices. Texas has the most stringent requirements for Medicaid in the country, according to the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation, barring access to single parents who make well below the federal poverty line.

“It’s one more assault against the same communities that face unjust, systemic barriers to basic human rights, including access to affordable health care, education, and housing,” Planned Parenthood said in announcing the new lawsuit.

Spokespeople for both the governor and Paxton did not respond to requests for comment.