Last year after the controversy of the videos that claimed that Planned Parenthood was selling fetal remains, Texas Governor Greg Abbott promised to cut state funding to the family planning and women’s health provider. As we all know those videos turned out to be falsely edited and that there is no evidence that Planned Parenthood harvests fetal tissue in Texas. But that did not stop Gov. Abbott from vowing to cut off $3.1 million in funding from Medicaid that the organization receives for providing healthcare services to the poor. Currently, Governor Abbott has yet to fulfill his promise.
The Texas Tribune reports that despite Abbott’s grandstanding and the fundraising he did, Planned Parenthood has yet to be cut off from the state Medicaid funds. About 12,000 low-income women receive health services from Planned Parenthood in Texas through the Medicaid program, which receives 90 percent of its funds from the federal government.
Ciara Matthews, the spokeswoman for the governor, said Abbott was “disappointed and troubled by the lack of progress” in defunding the women’s health organization but that he still expects “the appropriate authorities to move forward in eliminating taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood.”
It is unlikely that Texas will succeed in cutting Planned Parenthood from its Medicaid program. Around the same time that Abbott made his announcement, a federal district court told the state of Louisiana that it could not kick Planned Parenthood from its Medicaid program.
While the governor might not succeed in cutting Planned Parenthood from Medicaid his administration has targeted the organization and other abortion providers in other ways. Last year, health commission officials adopted guidelines that prohibit organizations that are loosely connected with Planned Parenthood from the state's Abstinence Education Services program.
The state also declined to renew a Houston-based Planned Parenthood affiliate’s long-standing HIV prevention services contract, under which the organization served individuals with HIV in five counties in the Houston area.
Texas health officials even quietly proposed rules to require the cremation or burial of fetal remains. These regulations might even regulate how doctors and hospital dispose of fetal remains in terms of a miscarriage.
With these challenges and the legislature resuming in January it is unlikely that abortion providers will not face more threats from the Texas government. If you want to help out you can visit Planned Parenthood’s website. You can also support the Center for Reproductive Rights which represented Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers in a lawsuit that successfully struck down House Bill 2.