Planned Parenthood affiliates across the state commenced their workdays Thursday morning by receiving subpoenas from the Office of the Inspector General of the Health and Human Services Commission. The subpoenas demanded thousands of pages of documents from four reported Planned Parenthood affiliates in San Antonio, Houston, Dallas, and Brownsville, respectively. According to the Statesman, the evidence collected includes “patient records and clinical notes […] going back as far as 2010 from at least 10 of the organization’s facilities.”
On Monday, the Office of the Inspector General issued a notice to all Planned Parenthood affiliates in Texas that their enrollment in the state’s Medicaid program was being terminated because of manifold failure to comply with standards of eligibility for Medicaid reimbursement.
Planned Parenthood insists that the investigations prying into their questionable operations have nothing to do with healthcare. They claim the most recent request for documents is a “fishing expedition,” although the organization has been caught perpetually engaged in multiple counts of Medicaid fraud and has been documented on-camera admitting to ongoing involvement in felonious abortion practices.
On Tuesday, Governor Abbott told Fox News that he welcomes a legal battle with Planned Parenthood, knowing that Planned Parenthood has no ground on which to stand. “In Texas,” he said, “Planned Parenthood has very serious legal issues.” The Governor reiterated the three main points underscored by the Inspector General. These include: “evidence that Planned Parenthood altered the abortion procedure in order to obtain fetal tissue” (the Governor noted that this violates both federal and state laws), “evidence where Planned Parenthood allowed unsanitary conditions that could cause the spread of infectious diseases,” and “the fact that Planned Parenthood has already previously been found in violation of Medicaid fraud for billing for items and services that were either unnecessary or never provided,” adding that “the Inspector General says he has uncovered more instances of these types of violations.” This last point could be what prompted Thursday’s subpoenas.
When asked why Planned Parenthood called the investigations and Medicaid cutoff “completely outrageous,” and cited a loss of women’s healthcare to result supposedly from Planned Parenthood losing their Medicaid enrollment, Governor Abbot didn’t miss a beat: “That is cover for the very serious violations they face… Second is, as it concerns healthcare for women, Texas has thousands… of women healthcare facilities where these same healthcare procedures can be provided to women that don’t provide abortions.”
The Governor views a legal challenge from Planned Parenthood as win/win for Texans: “I hope for a legal challenge here because I want to put these Planned Parenthood officials under oath and get them to swear about the practices that they were conducting in the state of Texas. Either their horrific practices will be revealed, or they will be found in violation of law for perjury.”