A federal appeals court has ruled that Texas and Louisiana can legally cut off Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed an earlier ruling by an appellate panel that barred Texas from enforcing a ban on Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood and also reversed a ruling in a separate case preventing Louisiana from doing the same, according to Fox News.
“While the statute unambiguously provides that a Medicaid beneficiary has the right to obtain services from the qualified provider of her choice, [the law] does not unambiguously say that a beneficiary may contest or otherwise challenge a determination that the provider of her choice is unqualified,” Chief Judge Priscilla Owen, a George W. Bush appointee, wrote in the majority opinion.
The three-judge appellate panel ruled against the ban in 2015, and the decision stood when the full court of 14 judges deadlocked 7-7. Since then, six nominees appointed by President Trump have joined the court, and four of them took part in Monday’s ruling, joining Owens in an 11-member majority opinion.
“Make no mistake — forcing Planned Parenthood out of the Texas Medicaid program would have a devastating impact on Texans,” Planned Parenthood CEO Alexis McGill Johnson said in a statement. “And Gov. Abbott knows exactly who he’s hurting — people of color, women, and people with low incomes.”
Texas Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton released a statement praising the ruling.
“The Fifth Circuit correctly rejected Planned Parenthood’s efforts to prevent Texas from excluding them from the state’s Medicaid program,” Paxton said. “Undercover video plainly showed Planned Parenthood admitting to morally bankrupt and unlawful conduct, including violations of federal law by manipulating the timing and methods of abortions to obtain fetal tissue for their own research. Planned Parenthood is not a ‘qualified’ provider under the Medicaid Act, and it should not receive public funding through the Medicaid program.”
