{"id":19946,"date":"2017-02-22T22:01:59","date_gmt":"2017-02-22T22:01:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=19946"},"modified":"2017-02-22T22:01:59","modified_gmt":"2017-02-22T22:01:59","slug":"planned-parenthood-scores-needed-court-victory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=19946","title":{"rendered":"Planned Parenthood scores needed court victory"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Planned Parenthood is back in the Medicaid game in Texas, thanks to a ruling by a U.S. district judge.<\/p>\n

This is good news for low-income patients who need state help in obtaining care such as cancer screenings or birth-control consultations.<\/p>\n

Of course, the ruling by Judge Sam Sparks reignites the debate over whether Planned Parenthood operates with a callous disregard for human life by peddling “fetal tissue.”<\/p>\n

Judge Sparks, who was appointed to the federal bench by fervently pro-life<\/em> President George H.W. Bush in 1991, said his decision restores Planned Parenthood ability to participate in the state’s Medicaid program which offers health care at heavily reduced prices for those who request it.<\/p>\n

At issue — as always — are those heavily edited video recordings of Planned Parenthood staffers discussing what to do with the remains of fetuses. No one has been charged with any illegal activity, I should add. Yet the state attorney general’s office has maintained that the video reveals callous and cavalier attitudes from Planned Parenthood staffers toward the rights of unborn children.<\/p>\n

“After reviewing the evidence currently in the record, the Court finds the Inspector General, and thus [the Texas Health and Human Services Commission], likely acted to disenroll qualified health care providers from Medicaid without cause,”\u00a0Sparks’ ruling read. “Such action would deprive Medicaid patients of their statutory right to obtain health care from their chosen qualified provider.”<\/p>\n

“No taxpayer in Texas should have to subsidize this repugnant and illegal conduct,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said. “We should never lose sight of the fact that, as long as abortion is legal in the United States, the potential for these types of horrors will continue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Illegal conduct? No one has determined definitively that anything “illegal” has occurred, Mr. Attorney General.<\/p>\n

The state keeps playing politics <\/a>with the health care needs of Texans. Judge Sparks’ ruling no doubt will be appealed, as Paxton has promised. Fine. Take it all the way.<\/p>\n

My own view is that Planned Parenthood performs valuable and wide-ranging health-related services to those who need it, but who cannot afford it without state assistance.<\/p>\n

As for abortions, it remains legal in this country for a woman to terminate a pregnancy — no matter how fervently many Americans believe the law should be changed.<\/p>\n

I also should add that Congress long ago prohibited the use of federal money to pay for an abortion. Therefore, this highly charged issue has become a giant distraction in the overall issue of the health care needs that Planned Parenthood fulfills.<\/p>\n\n

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Planned Parenthood is back in the Medicaid game in Texas, thanks to a ruling by a U.S. district judge. This is good news for low-income patients who need state help in obtaining care such as cancer screenings or birth-control consultations. Of course, the ruling by Judge Sam Sparks reignites the debate over whether Planned Parenthood … Continue reading Planned Parenthood scores needed court victory<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[122,6955,3609],"class_list":["post-19946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-medical-news","tag-abortion","tag-medicaid","tag-planned-parenthood"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19946"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19946\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19948,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19946\/revisions\/19948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}