RULING

Judge Blocks TX Planned Parenthood Cut

Keeping it eligible for Medicaid in the state.

U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks of Austin, Texas ruled on Tuesday that the state can't cut off Medicaid dollars to Planned Parenthood over a series of secretly recorded videos taken by anti-abortion activists in 2015. Texas now stands as at least the sixth state where federal courts have kept Planned Parenthood eligible for Medicaid reimbursements for non-abortion services. The decision on Tuesday allows Planned Parenthood to keep cancer screenings, birth control access and other health services for nearly 11,000 low-income women at 30 clinics. "A secretly recorded video, fake names, a grand jury indictment, congressional investigations — these are the building blocks of a best-selling novel rather than a case concerning the interplay of federal and state authority through the Medicaid program," Sparks wrote. "Yet, rather than a villain plotting to take over the world, the subject of this case is the State of Texas's efforts to expel a group of health care providers from a social health care program for families and individuals with limited resources."