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In the wake of another gruesome video depicting another PP medical doctor trying to sell fetal body parts, Texas axes Planned Parenthood’s Medicaid funding.
Last week, Governor Greg Abbott announced that the organization would no longer be entitled to Medicaid contracts. The announcement was followed by several raids at PP clinics where state inspectors requested that billing and patient records should be handed over within 24 hours. State inspectors currently investigate Medicaid fraud related to fraudulent billing practices reported at TX clinics.
Planned Parenthood backlashed and said that the raids were just a cover up to mask Texas’ politically-motivated move.
PP recently tweeted that it won’t go away from Texas, and it would not give up the fight. Moreover, the organization called lawmakers who decided to defund its TX clinics ‘extremists.’
But last week, Gov Abbott explained that the raids had nothing to do with politics, rather than trying to protect human lives and prevent fetal tissue trafficking.
“[…] the gruesome harvesting of baby body parts by Planned Parenthood will not be allowed,”
Gov Abbott added.
The governor was referring to several videos released by pro-life groups this summer showing PP doctors cold-bloodledly negotiating the price of body parts taken from aborted children with biotech representatives.
The latest video in the series, which was released Tuesday, suggests that a Texas doctor even re-positioned the fetuses inside their mothers’ womb to keep the heads intact. Such procedure is illegal under both state and federal law.
Texas regulators based their decision on these undercover videos taken by the Center for Medical Progress, a non-for-profit group concerned about bioethical issues that may alter human dignity.
This summer, the series of videos sparked national outrage when the first footage showed PP’s senior director Deborah Nucatola discussing the monetization of baby parts over salad and a glass of wine in a luxury restaurant.
In 2013, Texas adopted one of the toughest abortion laws in the nation. As a result, abortion clinics were reduced from 41 to 18, but some provisions of the law are now challenged in a federal law. Nevertheless if PP losses the battle, only 10 clinics will remain open.
Plus, in Texas, abortions are not federally funded.
So far, federal courts prevented Louisiana and Arkansas regulators from defunding Planned Parenthood. We don’t know yet if this will be the fate of Texas, too.
After hearing the news that Texas axes Planned Parenthood’s Medicaid funding, Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell announced that the feds contacted state lawmakers over the recent decision to defund the organization. Ms. Burwell wouldn’t provide more details on the talks.
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