Federal Appeals Court Won’t Hear Planned Parenthood Appeal Of Texas Defunding

Texas Gov. Rick Perry said the state would move immediately to stop providing any funding for Planned Parenthood and other clinics that provide abortions.

The Dallas Morning News: Federal Court Won't Revisit Ruling Allowing Texas To Defund Planned Parenthood
A federal appeals court has refused to reconsider its ruling that Texas can withhold state women's health care funding from Planned Parenthood clinics. The New Orleans-based 5th Circuit Court of appeals issued its ruling Thursday. State lawmakers cut off funding for Planned Parenthood, the largest health care provider in the Texas Women's Health Program (10/25).

Reuters: Court Refuses Planned Parenthood Appeal Of Texas Funding Cut
Texas Governor Rick Perry said after the order by the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans that the state would immediately stop paying program participants that are affiliates of abortion providers. ... Planned Parenthood said on Thursday that further consideration by the full court was needed to protect women's access to preventive health care like breast and cervical cancer screenings and birth control. ... The case could proceed to trial in U.S. district court in Austin, where a trial had been postponed in part because the appeals court was considering the matter (MacLaggan, 10/25).

CNN (Video): Texas Can Ban Planned Parenthood From Health Programs After Court Decision
Texas Gov. Rick Perry applauded the decision, by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. "Today's ruling affirms yet again that in Texas the Women's Health Program has no obligation to fund Planned Parenthood and other organizations that perform or promote abortion. In Texas we choose life, and we will immediately begin defunding all abortion affiliates to honor and uphold that choice," Perry said (Burnside, 10/26).

The Texas Tribune: Appeals Court Refuses To Rehear Planned Parenthood Case
Planned Parenthood has been the largest beneficiary of the Women's Health Program since it began as a Medicaid waiver program in 2006. It provides cancer screenings and contraceptives, but not abortions, to about half of the 130,000 low-income women enrolled in the program every year. In March, Perry announced the state would forgo federal funding and take over the program so it could exclude abortion providers and their affiliates. The state Health and Human Services Commission is set to launch the new Women's Health Program, without federal support, on Nov. 1. ... Planned Parenthood says that it will continue providing essential services to wom (Rocha, 10/25).