A federal judge upheld efforts by Texas and Louisiana to deny taxpayer funding to the Planned Parenthood national abortion chain, even as federal taxpayer funding breaks new records.
“The Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overruled a district court’s preliminary injunction preventing the exclusion of Planned Parenthood from Medicaid funding. The court of appeals ruled in an 11-5 majority that Planned Parenthood did not have the right to challenge the state’s decisions regarding who receives Medicaid benefits,” The Washington Free Beacon reports.
Officials in Texas and Louisiana banned the abortion chain from receiving funding from Medicaid programs run by those states, citing undercover videos showing the corporation was illegally selling tissue from aborted children. Planned Parenthood sued in 2017 to restore access to the funds.
The ruling comes as federal taxpayer funding to Planned Parenthood hit record highs in 2019.
“Planned Parenthood reported a record-high number of abortions and government funding for 2018-2019, despite encountering a wave of Republican-led measures designed to restrict resources and access to the controversial procedure,” Fox News reported in January 2020.
“(T)he annual report shows the group received $617 million in taxpayer funds for the fiscal year ending in June. That number represented roughly 37 percent of its overall funding and about a 9 percent increase from the previous year.”
The report revealed that Planned Parenthood’s private donations and revenues were dropping, with the record amount of taxpayer funding keeping the abortion chain alive.
Planned Parenthood has since withdrawn from one major Medicaid program over language preventing taxpayer funding to clinics that refer women for abortions, but even without those funds, federal taxpayer cash to the abortion chain could still be higher than it was under Barack Obama.
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The post Judge Upholds State Plan To Defund Planned Parenthood as Federal Tax Funding Hits Record Highs appeared first on American Action News.
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