Thursday, 11/15, in a letter to the Third Court of Appeals, Planned Parenthood admitted that they have been charging women for services that should be free under the Women’s Health Program (WHP), which serves low-income Texan women. Providers enrolled in the program are reimbursed by the federal government.
The letter states, “Pending a ruling on the emergency motion, three Plaintiffs, including the largest Women’s Health Program provider in the state, Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast Inc., have had to begin charging Women’s Health Program clients.”
Throughout this court saga instigated by Planned Parenthood in 2011, they have misled the courts by claiming that their clinics would have to shut down if the Pro-Life rule was enforced. Apparently, Planned Parenthood is well-positioned to continue as long as they charge their low-income clients for services that are marketed as free.
Planned Parenthood is, understandably, desperate. After the first lawsuit in which the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the State, Planned Parenthood changed the judicial venue, filing this second lawsuit in an abortion-friendly court. The tactic for the second lawsuit was to stop Governor Perry and the State of Texas from implementing the new state program with the Pro-Life rule.
Planned Parenthood is worried that they won’t have the funding to continue serving these women, and yet they are the sole reason that the WHP is delayed in the courts. If the goal of Planned Parenthood actually was to serve women, Planned Parenthood should refer women in need to a real health care agency, one whose WHP status is not in jeopardy. Instead, the abortion giant is subverting women’s health to their political agenda.
This billing only fuels a separate legal allegation that Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast has collected more than $5.7 million in fraudulent federal reimbursements through Medicaid. That lawsuit will be heard this week in a U.S. district court.
Texas is set to take over the Women’s Health Program from the federal government on December 31, at which time the program will be fully funded by the State of Texas, and abortion profiteers like Planned Parenthood will be excluded from the program.