Planned Parenthood has been tiptoed around, shown deference, and pardoned for unpardonable offenses for decades – all the while receiving increasingly lavish payouts from your hard-earned paycheck. While the rest of the nation – and the mainstream media at large – kowtow to the abortion industry by refusing to take a hard stand against Planned Parenthood’s criminal activity and audacious bullying tactics, Texas defies the status quo with a no-holds-barred approach to dismantling the abortion behemoth.
Indeed, Texas was the first state to commence internal investigations into Planned Parenthood in July, after the Center for Medical Progress (CMP) released disturbing video footage of top officials within the abortion chain endorsing behaviors that raise ethical questions and clearly disqualify the abortion business from receiving state or federal funding. Actions described on camera by a high-ranking official at Texas’ largest Planned Parenthood abortion mill, Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast (PPGC), are part of why Planned Parenthood is being rendered ineligible for Medicaid reimbursement. Consequently, Planned Parenthood was placed on-notice this week that their enrollment in the Texas Medicaid program will soon be terminated.
In a letter to Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast informing all Texas Planned Parenthood affiliates of their termination from the Texas Medicaid program, Health and Human Services Commission Inspector General, Stuart Bowen, cited the disturbing findings of CMP video footage in Houston as a basis for rescinding Medicaid taxpayer dollars from Planned Parenthood. “Earlier this year,” said Bowen, “you committed and condoned numerous acts of misconduct captured on video that reveal repeated program violations and breach the minimum standards of care required of a Medicaid enrollee.”
Because of these violations and admission of Medicaid fraud, all Texas Planned Parenthood affiliates have been rendered ineligible for further Medicaid reimbursements. Among the violations cited was Planned Parenthood’s documented willingness to agree “to procure fetal tissue even if it means altering the timing or method of an abortion” – an act that violates federal law. That admission came from PPGC’s Missy Farrell, who told CMP undercover investigators that Planned Parenthood abortionists can “alter” their “process” in order to deliver intact preborn children for research purposes. This “alteration” would become a line item on PP’s a la cart budget, Farrell explained.
In the letter, Bowen also cited Planned Parenthood’s failure to “prevent conditions that would allow the spread of infectious diseases,” noting video evidence of PP staff and visitors interacting with blood, non-intact skin, and body fluids as they prodded the bodies of deceased babies wearing only gloves.
The termination of Medicaid contracts is not the first time Texas has moved to stop funding to Planned Parenthood. In 2011, we dealt the killing business a massive financial blow by redirecting over $60M taxpayer dollars away from Planned Parenthood and into more deserving programs. But even after that, Planned Parenthood still thought they could play games with your tax money. Affiliates across the state have committed Medicaid fraud to the tune of tens of millions of dollars, cementing their reputation as a money-obsessed organization. And in one case, the group only had to furnish fifteen cents for every dollar they stole from taxpayers.
Texas Planned Parenthood affiliates were caught billing Medicaid for services that were never provided and were not indicated (for example, a Texas Planned Parenthood affiliate invoiced taxpayers for birth control in the name of women who had already been sterilized). Bowen cited these instances of fraud as further evidence that Planned Parenthood should not be receiving Medicaid reimbursements, saying: “The varied program violations by Planned Parenthood revealed in these two federal cases [Reynolds v. Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast, and Carroll v. Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast, respectively] and the information my office has recently received regarding similar program violations supports this Notice of Termination.”
Planned Parenthood’s audacity to continue to snub state and federal regulations without any apparent fear of consequence bespeaks a widespread conviction within the organization that Planned Parenthood is above the law. But the abortion giant messed with the wrong state, and they are now learning the full extent of action Texas will take to protect the women, preborn children, and taxpayers.
Even with this latest battle, the war to keep taxpayer dollars from the abortion industry is not over. The abortion giant Planned Parenthood will most likely run to a friendly federal court as soon as possible to ask for relief from the consequences of their unethical and illegal activity.
Additionally, Texas Right to Life is continuing to spearhead efforts to craft a permanent and efficient law to ensure the remaining taxpayer dollars going to Planned Parenthood and the rest of the life-ending industry are sent to comprehensive and life-affirming healthcare providers.