Judge Allows Texas to Ban State Funding to Planned Parenthood
Judge Allows Texas to Ban State Funding to Planned Parenthood
Think about this for a minute, especially if you are a Texan. The taxpayers of Texas will now have to pick up approximately 31.5 million dollars in services, and the bulk of those dollars will go to anti-choice church backed clinics once Planned Parenthood is taken out of the picture. Are average Texans really so backward that they think it’s ok not to have family planning that includes abortion and contraception advice that’s not packaged with religion? Are Texans really so misogynistic that they are going to let loud mouthed religious zealots set health policy for most Women in Texas?
In the latest of a series of legal proceedings about the women’s health program, a judge ruled Monday that Texas could cut off state funding from Planned Parenthood.
Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas and client Marcela Balquinta filed for a temporary restraining order to keep the provider in the new state women’s health program that is scheduled to begin on Jan. 1.
The provider will get another chance at a temporary injunction at another hearing on Jan. 11, but in the meantime, the Planned Parenthood will not be a part of the state-run women’s health program when it launches tomorrow.
Visiting Judge Gary Harger ruled that Texas may exclude the otherwise qualified provider as part of the state’s ban on abortion affiliates from the program, the Associated Press reports.
“It is shocking that once again Texas officials are letting politics jeopardize health care access for women,” said Ken S. Lambrecht, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas. “Regardless of what happens in the courts, Planned Parenthood will be here for our patients. Our doors remain open today and always to Texas women in need. We only wish Texas politicians shared this commitment to Texas women, their health, and their well being.”
Until today, the federal government paid for 90 percent of the $35 million program, but that match expired because Texas chose to switch to a state-funded version of the Medicaid Women’s Health Program that purposefully excluded Planned Parenthood as an approved provider.