After a decade of very hard work, pro-life advocates and lawmakers in Texas have finally succeeded in telling Planned Parenthood they can no longer steal Medicaid funds from the state. The legislature spent 5 long years in court working to prove that Planned Parenthood did not qualify for the funds. This included sharing evidence of their fetal body part trafficking, among other transgressions.
“There are hundreds of providers throughout the state of Texas willing to serve poor women with authentic healthcare services that are not also peddling abortion,” said Jennifer Allmon, executive director of the Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops. “The Texas Pregnancy Care Network has a list of such providers throughout the state and if these providers do not accept Medicaid, they can make referrals to life-affirming Medicaid providers who can offer genuine healthcare to women in need.”
My statement on today’s ruling from the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/CExmuN6ESg
— Texas Attorney General (@TXAG) November 23, 2020
Given that Medicaid is the avenue by which Planned Parenthood grabs most of its cash from taxpayers, the fact that a state has finally smacked their greedy paw away is a big deal. Despite how difficult a feat it was to accomplish, the hope is that other pro-life states can learn by example and take similar action to chip away at Planned Parenthood’s already crumbling empire.
According to Family Research Council as of Aug. 2020:
Twenty-three states have defunded (or attempted to defund) abortions with taxpayer dollars. (Some efforts have been stalled or stopped by the courts.)
- Texas is the only state to have defunded (or attempted to defund) abortions and abortion providers in Medicaid, Title X and state appropriations, and to have been granted a Section 1115 waiver from the Trump Administration to divert federal Medicaid funds away from abortion providers.
- Six additional states have good laws that defund abortion providers in the three principle funding streams: Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, Indiana, Louisiana, and Mississippi.
- Sixteen states have only partial defunding laws (not addressing all three principle funding streams) and/or temporary defunding policies (executive orders, state budgets, etc.): Alabama, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, and Wisconsin.
The abortion industry’s response to this debarment is exactly as expected. “How dare you take healthcare away from women!?” It must be boring to work in Planned Parenthood’s PR office, given that their response to any given situation looks exactly the same. But, no matter how many times they say it, abortion will never be healthcare. If your healthcare deliberately kills people for profit, you are doing it very wrong.
Planned Parenthood kills 947 (that we know of, anyway) American children every day. No civilized nation should subsidize that — and Texas is a reminder that we should not give up fighting for justice. As mentioned, Texas’s battle wasn’t won overnight. But they NEVER gave up — and now, their hard work has paid off. The persistence and perseverance of Texans in defunding Planned Parenthood is a reminder to all of us: We CAN defund Planned Parenthood, abolish abortion, and restore justice to the preborn.
Editor’s note: A state district judge has temporarily blocked the defund. Stay tuned for more updates!
