State dealt blow in federal court: Judge bans Texas from cutting funding to Planned Parenthood

Women's health care has become a hot topic in Texas after a federal court issued an order blocking the state from de-funding Planned Parenthood until a trial can be held and the issue can be further examined.

The ramifications of the proposed de-funding could be felt statewide, since the federal government announced it would stop sending Medicaid funds to the state to cover Texas' Women's Health Program, which has an annual budget of more than $30 million and covers low-income women ages 18-44 who are not covered by the Medicaid state plan. Federal funds cover 90 percent of the cost of the program.

"These women represent a population that, without the Women's Health Program, would likely be unable to obtain health care," wrote Judge Lee Yeakel, a George W. Bush appointee, in his April 30 decision.

In court documents, Planned Parenthood estimated it treated at least 49 percent of the approximately 103,000 women who were part of the Women's Health Program in 2010. The documents state that if Planned Parenthood loses its funding, which it estimates is about $13.5 million annually, it will be forced to close clinics and lay off staff members. Planned Parenthood of North Texas, which operates clinics in Plano and McKinney, said it would lose about $2 million annually.

Predictably, Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, praised Yeakel's ruling.

"Tens of thousands of Texan women enrolled in the Women's Health Program rely on Planned Parenthood for life-saving cancer screenings, annual exams and access to birth control," Richards said in a press release. "For many women, we are the only doctor's visit they will have this year. This ruling affirms what women have known all along: politics simply doesn't have a place in women's health."

The state of Texas has appealed the ruling, and oral arguments will be heard before the U.S. Fifth District Court of Appeals in the first week of June.

Several state leaders have said the quality of women's health care will not suffer even if the appeal ends in the state's favor and Planned Parenthood clinics are forced to close. Prior to Yeakel's decision on April 30, both State Comptroller Susan Combs, in a speech to the Plano Chamber of Commerce in mid-April, and Texas Health and Human Services Director Thomas Suehs, in a press release dated March 23, said they feel confident that no Texas women will be without health care if Planned Parenthood loses its state funding.

"As head of the state's lead health agency, I believe it's important to cut through the scare tactics and misinformation campaigns about the Women's Health Program," Suehs wrote. "Despite what you may have read or heard, I can assure you -- and the thousands of women who rely on the program -- that the state will continue to provide these vital services even without the federal government's help."

Yeakel, however, expressed disbelief that the program would remain operational if the federal money was not available.

"The court is particularly influenced by the potential for immediate loss of access to necessary medical service by several thousand Texas women," he wrote. "The record before the court at this juncture reflects uncertainty as to the continued viability of the Texas Women's Health Program. ... Although the governor has instructed that the program is to continue fully funded by Texas, the current record gives the court no comfort that funds are or will be available to continue the program after the phase-out of federal funds."

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