The Obama administration is coming under more fire from pro-life advocates for blocking Texas’ plan to run a women’s health initiative without funding the Planned Parenthood abortion business.
On Monday, the Obama Administration refused to renew funding for Texas’ Women’s Health Program (WHP) because of new state rules that disqualify abortion business affiliates from participation. The WHP encompasses Medicaid family planning services for low income women. The program started through authorizing legislation in 2005 and was renewed in the recent 82nd Legislative Session with new pro-life rules.
The Texas legislature voted to cut Planned Parenthood and about $64 million in taxpayer funding from the program and direct the funding instead of women’s health initiatives that do not include abortion. But the Obama administration turned down a request from Texas to run its Title X family planning program that way.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) sent a letter to the Texas Health and Human Services Commission rejecting the law by turning down the state’s request to run their own family planning program. This would have allowed Texas, not HHS, to determine where the funding is allocated.
The Susan B. Anthony List today criticized the Obama Administration for what it calls “its latest assault on the right of states—this time Texas—to pass legislation that would defund abortion-provider Planned Parenthood of taxpayer funding.”
“President Obama has proven time and again that he will exert whatever force necessary to ensure that his abortion ally Planned Parenthood continues to receive taxpayer subsidies,” said Susan B. Anthony List President Marjorie Dannenfelser. “This includes brazenly defying the will of states to make their own decisions as to where they send taxpayer funding. Once again the most pro-abortion President in our country’s history has shown his allegiance to Planned Parenthood is unwavering.”
“In July, SBA List held a rally in Concord, New Hampshire to show support for the Executive Council’s vote to discontinue the state’s contract with Planned Parenthood, citing their practice of providing abortions, but the Obama Administration overruled the decision and contracted directly with Planned Parenthood,” Dannenfelser said.” [related]
“Including New Hampshire, eight states have successfully cut Planned Parenthood’s funding to the tune of nearly $60.4 million dollars. The SBA List is working with pro-life grassroots organizations in those states to ensure funding is not restored and is also taking up action in other states to encourage similar results,” she added.
As it has in Indiana and New Hampshire, the Obama administration denied the request and, according tothe Texas Tribune, Cindy Mann, director of the federal agency, wrote a letter to Texas officials today saying its request is a violation of the federal Social Security Act.
“We want to be very clear [that] Medicaid does not pay for abortions and will not pay for abortions,” Mann told the Tribune. “We indicated to the state today [that] their proposal violates the longstanding law.”
Mann told the newspaper the Obama administration would allow Texas to continue de-funding Planned Parenthood until March, by which the state would have to work with federal officials to determine how to move forward.
“We’re very much interested in continuing discussions with them on having a longstanding renewal of the family planning demonstration program,” Mann said. “…The issue here is not whether Medicaid funding is involved but whether the state can restrict access to a qualified health provider simply because they provide other services Medicaid doesn’t pay for.”
Gov. Rick Perry told the newspaper he was uspet by the Obama administration’s decision, “I am concerned the Obama Administration is playing politics by holding women’s health care hostage because of Texas’ pro-life policies,” saying Obama is “sacrificing the health of millions of Texas women in the name of their pro-abortion agenda.”
Joe Pojman, the director of Texas Alliance for Life also condemned the decision in comments to LifeNews.
“We believe the State of Texas has every right to deny millions of tax dollars to Planned Parenthood, which is what the Texas Legislature and Governor Perry has chosen to do,” he said. “Senate Bill 7, passed last summer during a special legislative session, prohibits Medicaid tax dollars under the Women’s Health Program from going to abortion providers and their affiliated organizations.”
“This bill excludes several dozen Planned Parenthood sites from the Women’s Health Program, but it does not exclude any other hundreds of Women’s Health Program providers in Texas. Many of the other providers offer comprehensive primary and preventative care to low- income women in addition to family planning, which Planned Parenthood is unable or unwilling to provide,” he continued. “By threatening to cancel the Women’s Health Program in Texas, the Obama Administration is showing it would sooner deny tens of millions of dollars of medical services to low-income women rather than allow the State of Texas to cut off tax funding to Planned Parenthood.”
Elizabeth Graham, the head of Texas Right to Life also responded to the news in an email to LifeNews.
“The Obama administration is adhering to its pro-abortion agenda by playing politics with women’s health. Over 300 clean health care agencies are available to provide family planning services across Texas, but the Obama administration wants to keep taxpayers funds flowing to abortion providers at all costs, which exploits and jeopardizes the health of women,” she said.
On February 17, 2011, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott issued an opinion affirming that the state may exclude providers that perform abortions or are affiliates of abortion providers from a Medicaid program.
The Texas de-funding has already resulted in the closing of 12 Planned Parenthood centers.
“A new confirmed total of 12 Planned Parenthood facilities have been shut down in Texas since the end of the 82ndlegislative special session, which dealt the abortion industry a $64.2 million blow. Without government funding, Planned Parenthood facilities are withering on the vine. New funding priorities set by the legislature detail that any facility associated with the abortion industry is given the lowest priority for family planning funds. As a result, three Planned Parenthood affiliates have been forced to close several of their facilities in order to reduce operating costs,” said Elizbaeth Graham of Texas Right to Life.
In September, the Obama administration made a decision to force New Hampshire taxpayers to fund the Planned Parenthood abortion business after the state’s Executive Council voted to revoke a $1.8 million contract. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced it will provide the contract for family planning with Planned Parenthood directly from the federal government to the abortion business rather than routing the money through the state and letting New Hampshire officials determine who should receive the Title X grants. The council voted against funding because Planned Parenthood does abortions and its top officials earn big six-figure salaries.
The decision came after the Obama administration sent the state a strongly-worded letter to complain. The Health and Human Services Department is claiming the state broke federal rules in denying the Planned Parenthood contract and it alleges the state must provide family planning services to low-income women and that de-funding Planned Parenthood puts it at risk of losing federal funding by supposedly denying women access to family planning — even though other alternatives are available from other agencies.
After Indiana’s decision to de-fund Planned Parenthood, the top Medicaid official in the Obama administration denied Indiana’s use of its new state law that would cut off anywhere from $2 million to $3 million the Planned Parenthood abortion business receives in federal funds via the Indiana government through Medicaid. The Obama administration told the state it can’t implement the new law, with Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Donald Berwick denying a request to deny funds saying the federal Medicaid law stipulates that states can’t exclude providers based on the services they provide.
Indiana refused to comply and is standing its ground against a lawsuit Planned Parenthood filed and is appealing the Obama administration’s ruling that it can’t determine who receives the Medicaid tax dollars the state is given to dole out. But Marcus Barlow, a spokesman for Indiana’s Family and Social Services Administration, told National Journal, “The way the law was written, it went into effect the moment the governor signed it. We were just advised by our lawyers that we should continue to enforce Indiana law.”
