Officials in the state of Texas have been in court for several years already against Planned Parenthood, America’s abortion megacorporation.
At one recent point in the fight, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decided the state was allowed to remove Planned Parenthood as a Medicaid provider, meaning it would no longer get paid for those services.
But now the future gets even more bleak for the Texas operator, with a lawsuit from Attorney General Ken Paxton to recover $10 million the state already had paid to the abortionists.
The report from Courthouse News explains it’s part of the state legislature’s plan to defund Planned Parenthood – or at least make sure tax money no longer goes to the organization.
Texas has alleged Planned Parenthood “knowingly and improperly” failed to pay the money back after the state’s Health and Services Commission announced its decision in 2015 to end Planned Parenthood participation in Medicaid.
The company also is expected to be losing $4 million in state funding for each year.
The case is in federal court in Amarallo.
“The notice advised Planned Parenthood of its rights to administrative due process to contest the termination determination,” the state complaint charges. “Planned Parenthood failed to exercise any of its rights to challenge the termination, and by mid-January 2017 all of Planned Parenthood’s deadlines to request a hearing had expired.”
The abortionists did, however, go to court to try to halt the termination, and a district judge agreed to give the company what it wanted. But that was, just weeks ago, overturned by the appeals court.
Texas charged now that while the lawsuit was developing, “Planned Parenthood continued submitting Medicaid reimbursement requests from 2017 to 2021 that resulted in $10 million being paid,” the report said.
Paxton said that was unacceptable.
“I will not allow them to benefit from this abhorrent conduct after they were caught violating medical standards and lying to law enforcement,” he said.
The case is pending under Texas’ “Medicaid Fraud Prevention Act.”
Planned Parenthood said it will fight the state move to collect the money.
Courthouse News explained, too, “The state’s lawsuit comes eight months after Planned Parenthood sued Lubbock in federal court to block the city’s own abortion ban. The case was filed two weeks after voters decided to make Lubbock a ‘sanctuary city for the unborn.’ U.S. District Judge James Hendrix, a Donald Trump appointee, dismissed the lawsuit in June for a lack of jurisdiction, punting to Texas state courts to take up the matter.”
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