Judge: State shouldn't boot Planned Parenthood

AUSTIN (AP) — A state district judge issued a temporary restraining order Friday telling Texas not to kick Planned Parenthood out of a state health program for low-income women if it intends to keep accepting the federal funding used to cover nearly all of the $36 million program.

State officials plan to launch a new, state-funded version of the Women's Health Program on Thursday that will exclude any group with ties to an abortion provider. Last year, Planned Parenthood provided services to 46 percent of the women in the program, which provides cancer screenings and other basic health services but not abortions.

If the state starts its new program without federal funds, the judge's order will not affect it, said Helene Krasnoff, assistant director for litigation at Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

State law bans any group affiliated with abortion providers from participating in the taxpayer-funded program, even if the clinics don't offer the procedure. Planned Parenthood has filed multiple lawsuits to overturn the law's so-called affiliate ban.

Texas Health and Human Services Commissioner Kyle Janek said last week that his agency is struggling to sign up enough doctors to make up for the loss of Planned Parenthood, but he expected to succeed by next week.

The restraining order came in a lawsuit filed Friday by Planned Parenthood against the Department of Health and Human Services. The suit argues that the affiliate rule violates a state requirement that the program conform with federal law and be eligible to receive federal funds.

State Judge Amy Clark Meachum's order tells the state that it cannot cut off funding for Planned Parenthood as long as it accepts federal funds.

The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services plans to cut off funding Wednesday because officials there said the ban on Planned Parenthood was an illegal interference with a woman's ability to choose her doctor. But state officials have said they've found enough state funding to cover the program by shifting money from programs that do similar work and because other programs came in under budget.

When federal officials first threatened to cut off the program's Medicaid funding, Gov. Rick Perry ordered HHS to come up with a new program that used only state funds. State health officials said that allowing the original program to end would cost the state even more money because it would trigger a spike in unplanned pregnancies and undetected health problems among poor women.

Planned Parenthood filed a federal lawsuit to stay in the program, but the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Texas' affiliate rule was legal. The court refused to reconsider its decision Thursday, so the group is now considering whether to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

If Planned Parenthood is successful with any of its lawsuits, Janek has said he would shut down the Texas Women's Health Program rather than allow state funds to reach any group affiliated with Planned Parenthood or other abortion providers.

Perry, who is staunchly anti-abortion, condemned the group Friday for filing another lawsuit. He said state-funded program would move ahead as planned.

"If there was ever any doubt that Planned Parenthood is more concerned about its own interests than those of Texas women, there is no longer," Perry said in a written statement. "In Texas, we've chosen to protect innocent life. We will keep fighting for life, and we will ultimately prevail."

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott also has filed a separate lawsuit demanding that the federal government restore funding for the program, even with the affiliate rule. That case is scheduled to go to trial in March.