Power

Texas Planned Parenthood Will Have Medicaid Funding Longer Than First Thought

A temporary order issued Thursday temporarily preserves state Medicaid funds for Planned Parenthood reproductive health-care centers in Texas.

Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood was set to end Saturday. Thursday’s order preserves that funding until February 21. Glynnis Jones / Shutterstock, Inc.

Texas officials can’t kick Planned Parenthood out of the state’s Medicaid program, a federal judge ruled Thursday.

The temporary order issued by U.S. District Judge Sam Smith came after three days of testimony as to whether officials could remove the reproductive health-care provider from its Medicaid program based on allegations of medical and ethical violations at a Planned Parenthood facility in Houston. Those allegations stem from videos released by the anti-choice front group known as the Center for Medical Progress (CMP).

Those videos alleged that Planned Parenthood officials profited from the sale of fetal tissue for medical research. Republican-led investigations at the federal level and in 13 states revealed no evidence of wrongdoing by Planned Parenthood.

Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood was set to end Saturday. Thursday’s order preserves that funding until February 21.

The fight over Medicaid funding is not the only reproductive rights battle happening in Texas. Judge Sparks extended an order weeks ago blocking the state from enforcing new “fetal burial” rules designed to make abortion care more expensive. Those rules mandate the burial or cremation of embryonic and fetal tissue that results from abortions, miscarriages, or ectopic pregnancy surgery.

That rule was originally set to take effect December 19.

Texas is also not the only state led by conservatives trying to cut Planned Parenthood out of state Medicaid programs. Federal courts have blocked similar efforts in Arkansas, Alabama, Mississippi and Kansas. In each of those cases lawmakers also unsuccessfully cited the videos released by CMP as grounds to remove Planned Parenthood from their Medicaid programs.

Judge Sparks indicated Thursday that he hopes to have a ruling in the Texas Planned Parenthood funding battle by that February 21 deadline.