Abortion lobbyists have rallied a small group of Planned Parenthood clients they are calling Jane Does to testify against the state’s termination of the abortion giant’s Medicaid contract. The “Jane Does” filed a lawsuit against the state, claiming that Texas is infringing on their “right” to choose which provider they want under Medicaid regulations. They believe, misguidedly, that this right will be undercut by Planned Parenthood’s pending removal from the joint federal-state Medicaid program.
As the state has underscored, Planned Parenthood affiliates rendered themselves ineligible for participation in the program by committing illegal acts which violated the terms of their contract with the program. These acts effectively remove Planned Parenthood from eligible providers from whom Texas Medicaid recipients may choose. Texas did not – as anti-Life advocates insinuate – decide that Planned Parenthood should be ejected from the program in the absence of their documented abuse of the system.
Among these violations are multiple severe instances of Medicaid fraud. At least two major Texas Planned Parenthood facilities have been caught stealing egregious amounts of money from Texas taxpayers by overbilling the state for their services, and in many cases billing for “services” that were never even rendered. In Dallas, for example, Planned Parenthood of North Texas was caught billing taxpayers for contraceptives in the names of Medicaid recipients who had already been sterilized.
The state’s legitimate reasons for terminating Planned Parenthood’s Medicaid contract have been swept under the rug by Planned Parenthood activists, who highlight only one of the cited reasons for the state’s decision – that is, undercover video of a Houston Planned Parenthood manager candidly admitting to bioethical and legal violations regarding the collection of fetal tissue at Planned Parenthood. The footage was obtained at the “mega” Planned Parenthood facility on the Gulf Freeway in Houston. There, research director Melissa Farrell nonchalantly explained to citizen journalists from the Center for Medical Progress that preborn children delivered intact (and likely alive) for the purposes of tissue procurement were “just a matter of line items” on Planned Parenthood’s budget. In other words, Planned Parenthood admitted that they not only sell preborn children for profit (a crime), but also that they manipulate abortion procedures in order to do this (also a crime).
But the biggest hole in Planned Parenthood’s fight against the state is their insistence that without Planned Parenthood, women will lack healthcare options. This is simply not true; Planned Parenthood only operates about 37 clinics in the state of Texas, and these are almost all clustered in highly-populated urban areas. On the other hand, the state funds 732 health clinics that provide life-affirming healthcare to women all over the state – including the more sparsely populated rural areas which Planned Parenthood eschews due to their lower profit potential.
Texas women deserve better than an organization that commits fraud, lies to women, and kills their children. They deserve real, comprehensive healthcare.