Texas continued its fight Monday in federal court to defund the abortion giant Planned Parenthood.
Lawyers for state Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office argued that Texas should be allowed to defund the abortion chain based on “serious breaches of medical and ethical standards,” the East Texas Review reports. The hearing was before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit.
In late 2016, Texas notified Planned Parenthood of its plan to block their Medicaid contracts. However, the abortion giant sued, and a judge agreed to temporarily block the state’s actions last year.
On Monday, lawyers for Texas presented evidence that Planned Parenthood had broken laws concerning patient safety and the handling of aborted baby body parts to support their case.
“We provided conclusive evidence to the 5th Circuit that Planned Parenthood’s practices constitute serious breaches of medical and ethical standards. Such illegal and unethical behavior more than justifies Texas’ decision to withhold taxpayer funding from the organization,” Paxton said.
Lawyers for the state pointed to undercover videos by the Center for Medical Progress from 2015 that show Planned Parenthood employees admitting abortionists modify abortion procedures to better harvest aborted baby body parts for research, according to KVUE.
The abortion chain also is under investigation by federal authorities in regard to these findings. In December, the U.S. Department of Justice said it is investigating whether the abortion chain illegally sold aborted baby body parts.
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“Planned Parenthood’s shocking and repugnant conduct, captured in the raw video footage, proves that it is not a ‘qualified’ provider under the Medicaid Act,” Paxton said. “An organization that is willing to subject women to abortion procedure modifications that can put their health at risk without their consent does not deserve a dime of Texas taxpayers’ money.”
A recent Live Action project also documented numerous cases where Planned Parenthood repeatedly ignored suspected sexual abuse of minors and failed to report the cases to authorities.
Texas Right to Life reported more about the lawsuit in 2017:
Texas officials moved to terminate Medicaid contracts with Planned Parenthood in 2015 based on evidence of violations of patient safety and the illegal trafficking of body parts from aborted babies. Additionally, the Inspector General Stuart Bowen Jr. cited numerous abuses of Texas taxpayers through Medicaid fraud. Affiliates across the state have committed Medicaid fraud to the tune of tens of millions of dollars. In one case, the group only had to furnish fifteen cents for every dollar they stole from taxpayers.
Currently, Planned Parenthood receives about $3.1 million a year in taxpayer funding through Medicaid in Texas, according to the Review.
Planned Parenthood is the largest abortion business in America, aborting approximately 320,000 unborn babies every year. Its most recent annual report showed a record income of $1.46 billion, with about half a billion dollars coming from taxpayers. At the federal level, President Donald Trump and his administration also have been cutting off various streams of funding to abortion groups.
