Court Rules Texas, Louisiana Can Cut Taxpayer Funding to Planned Parenthood
A federal appeals court ruled Monday that Texas and Louisiana can cut off Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood clinics.
The ruling was handed down by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans. While it expressly reversed decisions in Texas and Louisiana, it also affects Mississippi, which is under 5th Circuit jurisdiction.
The issue is likely to go next to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The decision by the full 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans reverses an earlier ruling by a three-judge appellate panel that blocked Texas from enforcing its ban on Medicaid funding of Planned Parenthood.
It also expressly reversed a ruling in a separate case blocking Louisiana from banning Planned Parenthood funding. A three-judge panel in 2015 had ruled against the ban and that decision stood when the full court deadlocked 7-7 in 2017, when there were only 14 active judges on the court.
The court’s personnel has changed since then.
Six nominees of Republican President Donald Trump now sit on the court. Four of them participated in Monday’s case (one was recused and another joined the court too late to take part) and all four joined Judge Priscilla Owen’s opinion for an 11-member majority.
In dissent, Judge James Dennis wrote that the ruling conflicts with other circuits’ decisions and will leave millions of people in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi “vulnerable to unlawful state interference with their choice of health care providers.”
“Today’s decision from the 5th Circuit is yet another devastating blow in Texas’ long history of preventing people from accessing life-saving and essential health care at Planned Parenthood,” Melaney A. Linton, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast, said in a joint statement with other Planned Parenthood presidents from across the state.
Linton said that the decision was not the end of their fight and that “we must do everything we can to expand people’s access to essential health care, not restrict it.”
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton applauded Monday’s ruling, saying Planned Parenthood was guilty of “morally bankrupt and unlawful conduct.”
The Western Journal has reviewed this Associated Press story and may have altered it prior to publication to ensure that it meets our editorial standards.
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