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White House to States: Hands off Planned Parenthood

White House to States: Hands off Planned Parenthood

Says Defunding Planned Parenthood May Break the Law

In the wake of the heart-wrenching videos concerning Planned Parenthood’s sale of “fully intact” aborted babies and their assorted “baby parts,” sometimes without the mother’s consent, Alabama governor Bentley, Louisiana governor Jindal, and New Hampshire’s Executive Council took steps to defund Planned Parenthood in their states.

Because these defunding measures involve Medicaid, a federally-funded program, the Obama White House is warning states that they may be breaking the law by accepting Medicaid funding and excluding Planned Parenthood.  The Hill reports:

The Obama administration has warned Louisiana and Alabama that they could be violating federal law by cutting off Planned Parenthood from their states’ Medicaid programs.

The Republican governors in both states this month terminated their state Medicaid contracts with the organization in the wake of controversial undercover videos showing Planned Parenthood officials discussing the price of fetal tissue for medical research.

But the White House points out that federal law says Medicaid beneficiaries may obtain services from any qualified provider and that cutting Planned Parenthood out of the program restricts that choice.

“CMS has notified states who have taken action to terminate their Medicaid provider agreements with Planned Parenthood that they may be in conflict with federal law,” Department of Health and Human Services spokesman Ben Wakana said in a statement.

“Longstanding Medicaid laws prohibit states from restricting individuals who have coverage through Medicaid from receiving care from a qualified provider,” he said. “By restricting which provider a woman could choose to receive care from, women could lose access to critical preventive care, such as cancer screenings.”

While the issue of how states spend federal money is a point of debate in this instance, what is not a point of debate is that Planned Parenthood is not the only—or indeed a viable—venue for cancer screenings.  Planned Parenthood provides only manual clinical breast exams, exams women can do themselves at home.  TownHall reports:

But Planned Parenthood does not actually provide comprehensive breast cancer screenings. They offer only manual clinical breast exams. These exams are not alone sufficient to detect and diagnose breast cancer. Other types of screening, such as mammograms and MRIs, are much more adequate at detecting breast cancer in at-risk women. The American Cancer Society recommends that women with a high risk of breast cancer get an MRI and a mammogram every year.

Planned Parenthood does not offer these services. Freedom of Information Act requests have revealed that not a single Planned Parenthood in the United States has a mammogram machine. Not one. [emphasis added]

Planned Parenthood is an operation with one main purpose, and that purpose is not to provide cancer screenings to women. So while the Obama White House and Democrats, even Donald Trump, are stating that they are worried about “women’s health” and “access to health care” when they defend Planned Parenthood, we know better.

When it comes to defunding Planned Parenthood at the state level, however, the Obama White House is correct.  Hot Air explains:

However — and this is important to remember — on legal grounds, the Obama administration is correct, at least for now. There are two programs through which Planned Parenthood gets federal funds, Title X and Medicaid. Congress funds Title X for family planning services, and can block Planned Parenthood from receiving those funds at any time, assuming they can pass such a bill and get a President to sign it. Medicaid, on the other hand, has guarantees for patient choice, which federal courts have upheld in the past as a higher priority than government bars on certain providers. If a clinic takes Medicaid patients and remains otherwise in good standing, Medicaid has to reimburse the clinic for covered legitimate services.

The states cannot stop the flow of federal (taxpayer) dollars to Planned Parenthood.  Only Congress can do that, and they will only do that if there is sufficient public pressure to do so.

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Comments

So what? Defy the Feds. Do not fund PP. It’ll go to court. Fight it there. Refuse any injunctions imposed by judges. Hussein has been doing the exact same thing with the DHS ignoring a judge’s stay for granting amnesty. Why don’t they FIGHT!

    Why don’t they fight?

    Democrats don’t fight because they see nothing wrong here. Republicans (with 1 or 2 exceptions) don’t fight because they are afraid. Always.

“…the Obama White House is warning states that they may be breaking the law…”

BWAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA…wheeze…HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA…!!!

Buck you, Farracula…!!! You called the tune, now you get to EAT the piper.

    Not A Member of Any Organized Political in reply to Ragspierre. | August 13, 2015 at 3:36 pm

    B.S.!

    This would break no law.

    But it might end up putting Obama and the top Democrats in Prison…….

    Estragon in reply to Ragspierre. | August 13, 2015 at 5:33 pm

    States can’t stop Medicaid patients from using any qualified providers, it’s true, but don’t the States qualify the providers in their states?

    BTW, contra Trump and Hillary and Obama, abortion is NOT a “tiny portion” of PP’s business. Nationally 90% of their revenue is from abortion. Most “clinics” aren’t set up for any medical care at all other than abortion and birth control. Cancer screenings & other “women’s health” services are almost always referred out.

    – –

    The 90% of their revenue from abortion doesn’t count the sale of body parts, they hide that under miscellaneous revenue.

DINORightMarie | August 13, 2015 at 2:49 pm

“Accepting federal dollars ALWAYS comes with fat string attached.” –Sarah Palin (paraphr.)

Warned the states about this long ago…….when she, as AK governor, rejected federal dollars for Medicaid, but the AK legislature over-rode her.

Let me debunk this bullshit

If a doctor, a clinic or even a whole hospital was found to have violated the law and operating outside of their license, they’d not be allowed to provide a service.

According to the WH – we’d be unable to stop a doc, a clinic, or a hospital from operating … PERIOD.

Does anyone buy that?

    Sounds like each of the states needs to issue a statement that roughly goes: “Due to substantial allegations of fraud and felony violations of (XYZ), the State of ABC will no longer be accepting Planned Parenthood as a legitimate Medicare provider until such allegations are addressed and corrected.”

this administration is suddenly concerned with obeying the law?

that’s rich.

it’s also BS.

Women’s health is a woman’s issue, not a government issue.

The U.S. is becoming more and more a socialist country. Bernie Sander’s socialism soon becomes coercive Marxism and then turns deadly-to make all things equal. Enough already.

Let’s get the government out of health care completely.

Might break the law? These red liberal hypocrites must have practiced saying that a lot before hand.

If I were governor, I would write back that I’ll stop violating federal law as soon as the Obama administration stops violating federal law — and not one second sooner.

So, Separation of Cult and State is out? The Abortionist in Chief pleads for the life of Planned Parenthood.

Reports of #CecileTheAbortionist demise have been greatly exaggerated. Planned Parenthood remains plump and profitable. A leading advocate for reducing, reusing, and recycling unwanted and inconvenient human lives.

That said, this is an opportune moment to review and redo reconciliation of individual dignity, intrinsic value, and natural imperatives. Conserving the exceptional value of human life, beginning with lives in our own “garden”, has long-term benefits to ourselves and our Posterity.