Similar to Louisiana’s initiative, Texas’ Health and Human Services officials have informed Planned Parenthood their Medicaid funding is being severed. The state’s effort to cut the organization off from any public money is being headed up by the Governor’s office.
In a letter to all Planned Parenthood affiliates in Texas, state health officials and the state’s Inspector General announced they were kicking the organization out of the state’s Medicaid program.
It’s a decision they say is directly related to a series of secretly-taped videos of Planned Parenthood executives in Houston discussing the collection and processing of fetal tissue samples that surfaced over the summer. Yvonne Gutiérrez is with Planned Parenthood Texas Votes, the organization’s state political action committee. Gutierrez said at this point legal action seems inevitable.
“Because that is what has had to be done in other states. Obviously we will be corresponding with the state once the Planned Parenthood affiliates receive this notice, which they have not received yet and we will have to go from there in consultation with legal counsel," Gutierrez explained.
In 2014 Planned Parenthood received just over $3 million from the state’s Medicaid fund, the money was used to help provide free breast exams, pregnancy tests and birth control.
The Governor’s office said the decision should not affect access to care, citing thousands of alternative women’s healthcare clinics in Texas that do not provide abortions.
