Planned Parenthood branches across Texas have filed a federal lawsuit to prevent Gov. Rick Perry’s administration from excluding them from a women鈥檚 health program.
A month ago, Texas was from a federal program that helps subsidize contraception and reproductive check-ups for poor women.聽Even though the program has nothing to do with abortion, Perry wanted to exclude Planned Parenthood affiliates from participating.
Now is fighting the move in the federal courts.
Melaney Linton, the new president of Planned Parenthood’s , said of the filing, “It鈥檚 really unfortunate that we had to take this step, but we know that women are depending on us to do everything in our power to help preserve access to family planning services and to preserve their access to be able to go to the provider that they trust.”
Planned Parenthood leaders say that without the funding, clinics in low-income areas like the Rio Grande Valley will have to shut down.
is an Austin attorney who filed the , and he says it doesn鈥檛 matter how Texas pays for the program: It can鈥檛 exclude medical providers simply because they advocate for reproductive rights, or associate with other organizations that do so.
鈥淓ven if Texas does a 100 percent state funded program, they don鈥檛 get to say 鈥楨veryone can be in this program as long as they give up their rights to free speech and freedom of association.鈥 They can鈥檛 say that,鈥 Schenkkan said.
But a Perry spokeswoman, Catherine Frazier, says Texas will not roll over for this lawsuit. 聽“We certainly will fight it,” Frazier said. “We believe we鈥檙e on the right side of this issue. Planned Parenthood has no entitlement to taxpayer dollars any more than any other private or non-profit organization.”
The lawsuit requests a preliminary injunction by the end of April, which is when Planned Parenthood affiliates will start to lose their funding.
This post is part of a reporting partnership between , and Kaiser Health News.
