A (likely very) temporary reprieve.
It’s constitutional – deal with it
Responding to an emergency lawsuit filed hours earlier, a Travis County judge issued an order Wednesday blocking Texas from removing Planned Parenthood as a Medicaid health care provider beginning Thursday.
The 14-day temporary restraining order, granted by state District Judge Maya Guerra Gamble after a brief hearing Wednesday afternoon, allows Planned Parenthood to continue providing health care to about 8,000 low-income Texans.
The judge also set a Feb. 17 hearing to determine whether a temporary injunction should be issued to keep Planned Parenthood in Medicaid.
In its lawsuit, Planned Parenthood argued that state officials did not follow the legally mandated process for kicking its health clinics out of Medicaid. Wednesday was supposed to be the final day Planned Parenthood clinics could receive Medicaid reimbursement for care that can include contraceptives, cancer screening and testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections, but not abortions.
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Planned Parenthood’s lawsuit argued that the termination letter did not comply with state law, including requirements that reasonable notice, and an opportunity for a hearing, be given.
The organization is seeking a court order blocking its removal until it exhausts all available administrative protests and appeals.
Texas officials, however, have argued that Planned Parenthood’s attack on the Jan. 4 notice of termination was misguided because a notice sent in January 2016 — kicking off years of litigation — complied with all necessary state laws and Medicaid regulations.
As the story notes, this has been going on since 2015. The state officially gave notice to Planned Parenthood patients that they needed to find a new doctor on January 5. I didn’t blog about it then because it was too depressing, and we know what else was going on at that time. It was a Fifth Circuit ruling that allowed the state to take the final steps in this process, so I don’t expect there to be much future to this litigation. Even the argument being made is just to buy time, as there are no questions of law remaining. You know my mantra: until we start electing different people to office, nothing is going to change. The Trib and the Chron have more.