8.15.23
“Good News: Texas Could Bankrupt Planned Parenthood
From Donna Garner
[COMMENTS FROM DONNA GARNER: A conservative U. S. District Judge in Amarillo, Texas (appointed by Trump) is set to rule on forcing Planned Parenthood to reimburse Texas for $10 Million of improper billing plus reimbursements, penalties, and fees.
Step by step since 2011, Texas legislators, elected leaders, and many courageous pro-lifers have been dedicated to forcing Planned Parenthood and its affiliates into bankruptcy.
This upcoming ruling by U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk could put the “baby killers” and the “contraceptive pushers” out of business. Please pray.]
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8.15.23 – Texas Tribune
“Even After Planned Parenthood Stopped Performing Abortions, Texas Trying To Shut It Down”
By Eleanor Klibanoff
Excerpts from this article:
Texas restricted and then banned abortion. The state removed Planned Parenthood affiliates from state-funded health programs and turned down federal dollars rather than allow Planned Parenthood to receive them. Planned Parenthood has been cut out of funding for cancer screenings, contraception, HIV prevention and sex education.
…But now, the organization [Planned Parenthood] is facing a potentially existential threat from its longtime tormentor.
Last year, the state filed a federal lawsuit claiming Planned Parenthood improperly billed Medicaid for $10 million in payments during the period when the state was trying to remove the organization from the program.
Texas is seeking more than $1.8 billion in reimbursement, penalties and fees.
…U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, a conservative who previously worked on anti-abortion cases as a religious liberty lawyer, will hear arguments from both sides today in Amarillo.
EARLY EFFORTS TO DEFUND PLANNED PARENTHOOD
At the dawn of the 2010s, a long-simmering tension between conservative states and Planned Parenthood reached a full boil.
…typically, state or federal funds can’t be used to fund abortion services, red states have had to find other ways to starve Planned Parenthood of its resources.
Texas…led the way. In 2011, legislators eviscerated the state’s family planning budget from $111 million to $38 million and directed the remaining money to be distributed first to public agencies, like county health departments, and primary care centers.
As a result of these funding cuts, 82 clinics — 25% of publicly funded clinics statewide — closed or stopped providing family planning services. Clinics that remained open scaled back their hours and services, especially when it came to more expensive and time-intensive contraception methods like IUDs, sterilization and vasectomies.
…legislators tried to remove Planned Parenthood from the Women’s Health Program, another funding stream that helped low-income women access contraception. This program was primarily funded by the federal government, which paid $9 for every $1 that Texas kicked in.
…then, Texas did something no other state had tried yet: It walked away from about $30 million in annual federal funds rather than allow Planned Parenthood to continue to provide contraception to low-income women. In 2013, Texas launched its own women’s health program, relying entirely on state dollars.
…This was just the beginning: In 2015, legislators removed Planned Parenthood from the Breast and Cervical Cancer Services program…
REMOVING PLANNED PARENTHOOD FROM MEDICAID
…Texas opened a new line of attack on Planned Parenthood. The impetus was videos secretly recorded by anti-abortion activists that claimed to show Planned Parenthood employees in California discussing the illegal sale of fetal remains.
…Twelve states, including Texas, and Congress investigated the claims; a grand jury in Texas found no evidence of wrongdoing by Planned Parenthood — and, instead, indicted the anti-abortion activists for their deceptive methods. (The charges were later dismissed.)
But Texas used the public outrage around these videos to try to finally remove Planned Parenthood from the Medicaid program once and for all.
…As one of just 12 states that has not expanded the program, Medicaid in Texas essentially provides health insurance coverage only for children, pregnant women, disabled adults and the poorest residents.
…In 2016, Texas Health and Human Services Inspector General Stuart Bowen issued a final notice to Planned Parenthood, saying the undercover videos showed the organization acting in a way that “violate[s] generally accepted medical standards, as reflected in state and federal law, and are Medicaid program violations that justify termination.”
…During this time, Planned Parenthood affiliates in Texas continued to provide birth control, cancer screenings, HIV tests and other medical services to patients on Medicaid, and it continued to bill the state for those services and it continued to be reimbursed.
Finally, in March 2021, the final ruling came down, allowing Texas to remove Planned Parenthood from the Medicaid program.
… While this was happening, the state implemented a new abortion law that prohibited the procedure after about six weeks of pregnancy…
…And then came the lawsuit [the one that U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk will decide]. Texas and an anonymous filer, claiming to be associated with the group that released the videos back in 2015, claim Planned Parenthood should have to pay back all the Medicaid reimbursements it received while the injunction was in place.
The 2022 lawsuit, filed by Paxton before he was impeached this year, argues that Planned Parenthood erred by not appealing the initial termination through administrative channels and instead pursuing the case through the courts.
…they’ve asked the judge to order Planned Parenthood to pay an additional two times that value, plus civil penalties and interest from the day the payment was billed as well as expenses, costs and attorneys fees.
The estimated $1.8 billion payment would likely bankrupt Texas’ three Planned Parenthood affiliates several times over at a moment the organization argues they are needed more than ever…
…This lawsuit was filed in 2022 in Amarillo, a city that does not have a Planned Parenthood clinic, ensuring it would be heard by Kacsmaryk, a favorite judge among conservative litigants.
Before President Donald Trump appointed him to the bench, Kacsmaryk worked for First Liberty Institute, a conservative religious liberty firm based in Plano. He litigated several anti-abortion cases and has espoused personal animus toward abortion.
In April, Kacsmaryk suspended approval of mifepristone, a common abortion-inducing drug.
The U.S. Supreme Court put that ruling on hold temporarily…
Planned Parenthood has called this lawsuit meritless and asked Kacsmaryk to dismiss it entirely. But Texas and the anonymous plaintiff recently filed a brief claiming a June Supreme Court decision about the False Claims Act clarified the law in their favor.
Kacsmaryk is scheduled to hear arguments from both sides today. He has not said when he will rule.