U.S. judge: Texas cannot oust Planned Parenthood from Medicaid

A federal judge Tuesday indefinitely blocked Texas officials from ousting Planned Parenthood as a Medicaid health-care provider, dealing another blow to Republican-led efforts to enforce stricter abortion-related regulations and policy.

U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks of Austin said Texas health officials tried to punish Planned Parenthood based on “unsubstantiated and indeterminate allegations” — without any evidence that federal law, state law or Medicaid rules were broken — based on footage from an undercover video shot in 2015 by abortion opponents.

"Such action would deprive Medicaid patients of their statutory right to obtain health care from their chosen qualified provider," Sparks wrote in the order granting the preliminary injunction sought by Planned Parenthood.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said he will appeal the ruling.

“Today’s decision is disappointing and flies in the face of basic human decency,” Paxton said in a written statement. “Even the remains of the most vicious criminals are treated with respect. But the children who never had a chance at life become so-called medical waste or, alternatively, a commodity to be bartered for.”

The case before Sparks focused on whether the video, shot by abortion opponents using a hidden camera, offered sufficient evidence of medical and ethical violations at a Planned Parenthood facility in Houston to justify ousting all 30 Planned Parenthood health clinics from Texas Medicaid.

State officials said the video showed that clinic officials were willing to change how abortions were performed to better obtain fetal organs and tissue for use in medical research, a violation of federal law and accepted medical practices that could put women at greater risk.

“This video … is the closest that anyone has ever been to see what goes on inside Planned Parenthood, ” Assistant Attorney General Andrew Stephens told Sparks during a hearing last month.

Looking at the same video clips, however, Planned Parenthood’s lawyers argued that officials only offered to change clinical procedures to identify and preserve desired tissue after the abortion was completed, a legal act.

“This is the latest in a long string of attacks against Planned Parenthood in Texas, ” Planned Parenthood lawyer Jennifer Sandman told Sparks during the hearing. “This termination is not based on any problem — any problem — with the service these Planned Parenthood organizations provide.”

Sandman said dropping Planned Parenthood from Medicaid would have devastating consequences for 12,500 low-income Texans, mostly women, who get contraceptives and health care from the organization, which specializes in reproductive health and offers night and weekend hours other clinics don’t.

Federal law gives patients the right to choose their own health care provider, Sandman said.

But Stephens said the law pertains to “qualified” providers that offer competent, safe, legal and ethical care. The video showed Planned Parenthood couldn’t meet those standards, he argued.

Last year, Planned Parenthood affiliates in Texas received a combined $3.5 million in Medicaid reimbursements for health care that did not include abortions. Ninety percent of the Medicaid money came from the federal government, with the rest provided by Texas.

Relying on the undercover video, Texas health officials moved to oust Planned Parenthood from Medicaid on Dec. 18.

After the organization sued, Sparks delayed the ouster and presided over a three-day hearing in mid-January that produced thousands of pages of evidence and more than eight hours of undercover video. When the hearing ended, Sparks extended his order keeping Planned Parenthood in Medicaid for another month, leading to Tuesday’s deadline.

In a separate case last month, Sparks blocked Texas from requiring fetal remains to be buried or cremated, saying the rule placed an unacceptable burden on access to abortion, in part because a limited number of willing and available crematoriums could make it impossible for clinics to comply.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said he will appeal that ruling.

The latest case also comes almost eight months after the U.S. Supreme Court tossed out two Texas regulations, passed in the second of two tumultuous special legislative sessions in 2013, that would have left nine abortion clinics operating in the state. The ruling overturned rules requiring abortions to be performed in hospital-like surgical centers and abortion doctors to have admitting privileges in a nearby hospital.

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