Appeals court allows Texas to exclude Planned Parenthood

The social issues are always difficult, especially abortion because the issue inflames passions on all sides. Reuters reports:

An appeals court ruled on Tuesday that the state of Texas can exclude Planned Parenthood from a state health program for low-income women because the organization performs abortions.

The ruling by 5th U.S. Circuit Judge Jerry Smith reversed a lower court ruling Monday in favor of the family planning organization.The emergency ruling on Tuesday means the state is free - for now - to enforce a new rule banning Planned Parenthood from the Women's Health Program, Texas officials said. The court requested a response from Planned Parenthood by Tuesday afternoon. "

At this point, Planned Parenthood is not an eligible provider in the Women's Health Program," Stephanie Goodman, a spokeswoman for the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, said on Tuesday.

The Women's Health Program, which is part of the federal-state Medicaid program, provides cancer screenings, birth control and other health services to more than 100,000 low-income women.

Read the rest here

Reuters

Texas already bans public funding for abortions so specifically targeting Planned Parenthood because it provides legal abortion while providing other services related to women's health is probably not going to survive a judicial test because it's punitive and discriminatory.

Personally, I don't believe that taxpayers dollars should ever fund abortion (and most everything else for that matter) but so long as abortion is legal the state of Texas is going to have a difficult time trying to outlaw abortion by targeting abortion providers who provide other heathcare services.

    

Judy Morris