Planned Parenthood has taken its fight for Medicaid funds to state
court, claiming Texas illegally eliminated affiliates of abortion
providers from a health care program for low-income women.
Seven Planned Parenthood affiliates sued the Texas Health & Human Services Commission and Executive Commissioner Kyle Janek in Travis County Court.
The Texas Tribune reports that State District Judge Amy Clark Meachum granted the affiliates a temporary restraining order Friday.
The state Legislature passed administrative rules in 2011 that bar health care providers who participate in the mostly federally funded Women's Health Program (WHP) from performing or promoting abortions, or from affiliating with entities that do.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services responded by pulling federal funding from the state program altogether. Texas sued the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services over the lost funding and will go to trial in March 2013.
In a parallel federal complaint, U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel enjoined the rules, but the New Orleans-based 5th Circuit vacated the injunction. Last week, the circuit court refused to grant a rehearing en banc.
"Plaintiffs' combined annual WHP reimbursements, which they will lose if the rules are enforced, total approximately $13 million per year," the Planned Parenthood affiliates claim in Friday's lawsuit in state court. "The loss of this funding would be devastating for plaintiffs, who will be required to close some health centers, reduce hours at other centers, and lay off staff members, defeating plaintiffs' core mission of providing essential family planning and preventative care and irreparably damaging continuity of care with many of the 48,000 low-income women whose access to care depends on WHP."
Read more: http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/10/29/51784.htm
Seven Planned Parenthood affiliates sued the Texas Health & Human Services Commission and Executive Commissioner Kyle Janek in Travis County Court.
The Texas Tribune reports that State District Judge Amy Clark Meachum granted the affiliates a temporary restraining order Friday.
The state Legislature passed administrative rules in 2011 that bar health care providers who participate in the mostly federally funded Women's Health Program (WHP) from performing or promoting abortions, or from affiliating with entities that do.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services responded by pulling federal funding from the state program altogether. Texas sued the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services over the lost funding and will go to trial in March 2013.
In a parallel federal complaint, U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel enjoined the rules, but the New Orleans-based 5th Circuit vacated the injunction. Last week, the circuit court refused to grant a rehearing en banc.
"Plaintiffs' combined annual WHP reimbursements, which they will lose if the rules are enforced, total approximately $13 million per year," the Planned Parenthood affiliates claim in Friday's lawsuit in state court. "The loss of this funding would be devastating for plaintiffs, who will be required to close some health centers, reduce hours at other centers, and lay off staff members, defeating plaintiffs' core mission of providing essential family planning and preventative care and irreparably damaging continuity of care with many of the 48,000 low-income women whose access to care depends on WHP."
Read more: http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/10/29/51784.htm
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