The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Thursday in support of allowing Texas to strip Planned Parenthood’s services from its Medicaid program.
A three-judge panel reversed a lower court injunction that blocked the state’s effort to strip $3.1 million in funding from the organization.
Judge Edith H. Jones, a Reagan appointee, wrote that the district court that issued the injunction erred in overruling the state’s determination that Planned Parenthood should lose funding, saying that “its procedure was incompatible with the proper standard.”
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton praised the decision in a statement Thursday evening.
“The 5th Circuit’s ruling shows that the district court applied the wrong legal standard,” Paxton said. “Planned Parenthood’s reprehensible conduct, captured in undercover videos, proves that it is not a ‘qualified’ provider under the Medicaid Act, so we are confident we will ultimately prevail.”
The state has been pushing since 2015 for Planned Parenthood to be excluded from its program after the publishing of secretly recorded videos that appeared to show organization representatives talking about reimbursement for fetal tissue given for research purposes. Planned Parenthood was later cleared of all wrongdoing by the House Oversight Committee.
In late 2016, the Texas Health and Human Services inspector general petitioned to restrict state funds.
Last February, a federal judge ruled against ending Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood because of how it would affect low-income residents. Although U.S. law prohibits Medicaid funding from going toward abortions, states have the option of allowing patients to get other services by the provider.
The 5th Circuit heard the state’s appeal over the summer. The Supreme Court declined in December to take up cases related to Planned Parenthood funding.
