A Planned Parenthood affiliate received both good news and bad news Monday in its Medicaid funding battles, with a federal judge temporarily requiring Louisiana to fund the abortion provider while a Texas inspector general’s office decided to cut off the group.
In Baton Rouge, U.S. District Judge John W. deGravelles ruled that Louisiana cannot suspend Medicaid payments to Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast and ordered the state to provide funding for at least another 14 days while evidentiary hearings are scheduled.
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal has sought to defund Planned Parenthood for several months.
Mike Reed, Mr. Jindal’s communications director, said Monday that the state will appeal the judge’s ruling “and continue the fight to ensure Planned Parenthood no longer receives taxpayer funding.”
Melissa Flournoy, the Louisiana state director of Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast, praised the federal order, which was dated Sunday and released Monday.
“It is shameful that Governor Jindal is trying to score political points by blocking women’s access to critical health care,” she said in a statement, echoing other Planned Parenthood officials who said Mr. Jindal was using the issue in his bid for the Republican presidential nomination.
The Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals contracts with Planned Parenthood clinics in Baton Rouge and New Orleans, which serve about 5,200 patients for physical exams, contraceptive services, screenings for disease and cancers, and pregnancy testing and counseling.
Neither center says it performs abortions and neither participates in fetal tissue donation, Judge deGravelles’ ruling noted.
However, an undercover video released by the Center for Medical Progress showed Melissa Farrell, director of research at Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast — which also serves Texas — discussing contracts for fetal tissue donation for the purpose of research.
On Aug. 3, Mr. Jindal issued a statement announcing the termination of the state’s Medicaid contract with Planned Parenthood because it does not “represent the values” of Louisiana “in regards to respecting human life.”
These issues, as well as Planned Parenthood’s history of millions of dollars in Medicaid billing errors, likely will be reviewed as the case proceeds.
Separately, Texas’ office of inspector general for the state’s health agency issued a letter Monday saying the state was in the process of terminating its Medicaid contract with Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast.
“The State has determined that you and your Planned Parenthood affiliates are no longer capable of performing medical services in a professionally competent, safe, legal, and ethical manner,” said the letter, signed by Stuart W. Bowen Jr., inspector general for the Texas Health and Human Services Commission.
Reasons for the termination include actions involving fetal tissue donation as revealed in the Center for Medical Progress videos and also “reliable information indicating a pattern of illegal billing practices” in the state.
Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast can challenge the notice and request an informal resolution meeting within 30 days, the letter said.
Dawn Laguens, executive vice president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said the Texas move “should be a national scandal.”
The videos are a completely discredited “smear campaign,” and Planned Parenthood will “fight back against this outrageous, malicious, political attack in Texas with everything we’ve got,” Ms. Laguens said.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, said Monday that he supported the defunding of Planned Parenthood because thousands of alternate health care providers are available in the state.
“The gruesome harvesting of baby body parts by Planned Parenthood will not be allowed in Texas, and the barbaric practice must be brought to an end,” Mr. Abbott said.
• Cheryl Wetzstein can be reached at cwetzstein@washingtontimes.com.
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