Fifth Circuit Delivers Huge Blow to Planned Parenthood in Texas
Texas stripped Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood after videos showed the organization breaking state and federal laws.
Back in 2015, undercover videos showed Planned Parenthood “violating medical and ethical standards codified in federal law and” Texas regulations. This caused Texas to strip the infanticide organization of Medicaid funding.
Planned Parenthood asked the federal courts to restore the funding. The 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against them and blasted them “for its rhetoric and medical practices.”
You can review the ruling here.
From National Review:
In its ruling tonight, the Fifth Circuit not only affirmed the state’s right to terminate its agreement with Planned Parenthood affiliates, but also confirmed that the videos were undoctored. The court noted that an independent forensic firm’s review of the undercover footage found “that the video was authentic and not deceptively edited.” This directly refutes Planned Parenthood’s own false claim.
The ruling also mentioned parts of the video footage in which Planned Parenthood executives had admitted to illegally altering abortion procedures to obtain intact fetuses whose organs could then be sold to medical research firms for greater profit. This included finding ways to circumvent the federal ban on partial-birth abortion, whether by changing the way they performed late-term procedures or by signing a form saying they had not “intended” to retrieve an intact fetus.
Tonight’s decision is a win for the pro-life effort to remove Planned Parenthood’s Medicaid funding at the state level, but it also affirms evidence showing that Planned Parenthood doctors and affiliates did indeed break federal law.
The panel also criticized the way Planned Parenthood went about this lawsuit. From The Daily Caller:
Finally the panel accused the judiciary of politicking on abortion cases. Ordinarily, providers like Planned Parenthood must challenge Medicaid termination decisions in an administrative forum and state court before seeking a federal court’s intervention. By allowing Planned Parenthood to skip directly to federal court — as the trial court did here — the 5th Circuit said judges are engaging in ideological favoritism.
“Had [Texas] terminated the Medicaid provider agreements of any other type of health care provider, the incongruity of allowing that provider to use patient litigation proxies to avoid administrative review and [reach] federal court would be obvious and unacceptable,” the ruling reads.
However, while this will be a win for the pro-life movement, the ruling means that Planned Parenthood can continue its lawsuit against Texas. The court “ordered the lower court judge to reconsider Planned Parenthood’s request under a different standard which is more accommodating of Texas.”
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Comments
So, is this going to prevent Mary Gatter from getting her Lamborghini?
Judges can show an ideological bias in bypassing normal administrative processes?!?!?!?
Someone pinch me. Thank God I live in Texas where men are men, women are real WOMEN, and cows luv CFA!!!!
I’d preferred the 5th to kick it dead. Say the case should never have been accepted by the Federal court, as they did, but instead of returning it to the lower court, just overrule and kill the case. Affirm Texas’ right to forbid medicare funding to PP and be done with it AND forbid the lower court from entertaining a lawsuit until or unless it has proceeded through the proper State level processes. No?
This is the 21st Century. Isn’t it time we found a better way to perform birth control beside hacking up living infants in vitro with medical coat-hangers?
Seriously. We have amazing technology. It’s time to move forward.
I don’t quite understand your comments. Are you suggesting that destroying human life with more “amazing technology” is somehow a morally superior option?