AMARILLO, Texas (CN) – Texas Republicans continued their years-long quest to defund Planned Parenthood in federal court on Thursday, demanding the return of $10 million in Medicaid reimbursements paid by the state.
In a lawsuit filed in Amarillo federal court, Texas claims the abortion provider “knowingly and improperly” failed to pay the money back after the state’s Health and Services Commission decided in 2015 to terminate Planned Parenthood’s credentials as a Medicaid provider. Planned Parenthood stands to lose $4 million in state funding every year under the termination.
“The notice advised Planned Parenthood of its rights to administrative due process to contest the termination determination,” the 22-page complaint states. “Planned Parenthood failed to exercise any of its rights to challenge the termination, and by mid-January 2017 all of Planned Parenthood’s deadlines to request a hearing had expired.”
Planned Parenthood instead sued the state to halt the termination, with an Austin federal judge issuing a preliminary injunction in 2017. Senior U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks rejected the state’s arguments that undercover videos taken by an anti-abortion group at Houston clinics “expose a brazen willingness by Planned Parenthood officials to traffic in fetal body parts, as well as manipulate the timing and method of abortion.”
Sparks, a George H. W. Bush appointee, concluded there was no evidence the clinics ever altered an abortion procedure, let alone would be willing to do so.
Texas appealed that ruling to the Fifth Circuit, which ruled for the state two months ago and removed the injunction. The New Orleans-based appeals court ruled the individual plaintiffs “do not have a right to continued benefits to pay for care.”
The Lone Star State claims that while that lawsuit was pending, Planned Parenthood continued submitting Medicaid reimbursement requests from 2017 to 2021 that resulted in $10 million being paid.
Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said it is “unthinkable” for Planned Parenthood to “take advantage” of the funds.
“I will not allow them to benefit from this abhorrent conduct after they were caught violating medical standards and lying to law enforcement,” Paxton said in a written statement.
Texas seeks disgorgement of the $10 million under the Texas Medicaid Fraud Prevention Act.
Planned Parenthood denounced Texas’ lawsuit as “yet another political attack” on the provider by anti-abortion politicians, deeming the claims as meritless.
“Attorney General Ken Paxton, Governor Greg Abbott, and their allies continue to do everything in their power to undermine the health care of Texans, who have suffered under the most restrictive abortion law in the nation for more than four months now,” said general counsel Kumiki Gibson in an email message Thursday afternoon. “Planned Parenthood will continue to fight back against all of these false accusations and political attacks and will continue serving patients in Texas – no matter what.”
The state's lawsuit comes eight months after Planned Parenthood sued Lubbock in federal court to block the city’s own abortion ban. The case was filed two weeks after voters decided to make Lubbock a “sanctuary city for the unborn.” U.S. District Judge James Hendrix, a Donald Trump appointee, dismissed the lawsuit in June for a lack of jurisdiction, punting to Texas state courts to take up the matter.
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