By Dave Andrusko
U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel today granted the request of nine Planned Parenthood affiliates for a preliminary injunction to keep Texas from enforcing rules that disqualify abortion business affiliates from participating in the Women’s Health Program (WHP) which serves low-income women. Had not Yeakel issued the preliminary injunction, the clinics would no longer have received funding beginning tomorrow when the rules take effect.
Planned Parenthood had dodged the ban on abortion providers or their affiliates that has existed since the Women’s Health Program was created in 2005 because the Texas Health and Human Services Commission was unsure of the constitutionality of the rule and failed to enforce it.
However last year Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott issued an opinion that found that banning these organizations would not violate any federal law or the U.S. Constitution.
In February, the state adopted rules again and pursued the goal of enforcing the rule that would bar Planned Parenthood health clinics from participating in the program because they are affiliated with Planned Parenthood Federation of America which does provide abortions and advocates to keep abortion legal.
However, Judge Yeakel concluded the rule violated Planned Parenthood’s rights of free speech and association.
“By requiring plaintiffs to certify that they do not ‘promote’ elective abortions and that they do not ‘affiliate’ with entities that perform or promote elective abortions … Texas is reaching beyond the scope of the government program and penalizing plaintiffs for their protected conduct,” Yeakel wrote in his order.
The court battle has overlapped with attempts by the Obama Administration to muscle Texas into submission. Last December, the Obama Administration’s Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) refused to renew $40 million in funding for Texas’ Women’s Health Program on the grounds that the ban did in fact violated federal law.
The U.S. Health and Human Services Department ordered Texas to begin phasing out the program, which would no longer receive federal money. Pro-life Gov. Rick Perry responded by vowing to find other sources of funding to continue the program.
“Though the preliminary injunction may seem to be a victory for the abortion giant, Governor Perry and Texas Attorney General Abbott have consistently held that Texas will not continue the WHP if taxpayers are forced to subsidize the abortion industry,” said Elizabeth Graham, Director of Texas Right to Life. “The Legislature redirected a large portion of so-called family planning funds away from the abortion industry and also passed other pro-life funding measures, and Planned Parenthood will stop at nothing to force its agenda on taxpayers and on low-income women.”
Graham added, “Planned Parenthood is now playing politics with women’s health by risking the whole program by its advocacy of abortion. Attorney General Abbott is fully prepared to defend the intent of the Legislature by allowing participation in the WHP to providers and agencies that provide a full spectrum of health care services and that are not affiliated with abortion.”
Texas Right to Life very carefully oversaw the WHP renewal legislation to ensure that low-income women could find services at agencies that do not provide abortion, Graham explained. She said Planned Parenthood’s claims in the lawsuit about discrimination and no equal protection if excluded from the WHP are absurd.
“If Planned Parenthood would stop committing abortion, they would be eligible for several public revenue streams,” Graham said. “We have full confidence in Attorney General Abbott to protect the taxpayers of Texas from directly and indirectly funding America’s largest abortion chain.”
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