Texas filed a lawsuit against the abortion provider giant Planned Parenthood in 2022, demanding the organization pay back millions of dollars it obtained through Medicaid.
The state’s attorney general, Ken Paxton, filed the lawsuit against Planned Parenthood in 2022 to receive at least $10 million in Medicaid reimbursements for the four years Texas had booted the organization off of its state program, as reported by the Associated Press.
U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, who ruled against the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of mifepristone in April 2023, will preside over the hearing.
Planned Parenthood argued that the lawsuit could force the company to shut down its operations entirely.
“This baseless case is an active effort to shut down Planned Parenthood health centers,” Alexis McGill Johnson, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, told the Associated Press.
Planned Parenthood says it will have to shut down if Texas wins lawsuit demanding millions https://t.co/YurFI5CYlj
— TheBlaze (@theblaze) August 16, 2023
Texas initially notified the abortion provider that it would cease all Medicaid payments in December 2016, as reported by the Blaze, resulting in the organization suing the state and persuading a federal court to agree with it, enabling it to continue Medicaid. In 2020, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit reversed that ruling, which was upheld a year later.
Paxton’s lawsuit accused Planned Parenthood of filing a legal appeal instead of a legislative appeal, arguing that all payments accepted by the organization after Feb. 1, 2017, were fraudulent.
“It is unthinkable that Planned Parenthood would continue to take advantage of funding knowing they were not entitled to keep it,” Paxton said after filing the lawsuit in 2022. “I will not allow them to benefit from this abhorrent conduct after they were caught violating medical standards and lying to law enforcement.”
Planned Parenthood argued that it could potentially owe Texas over $1 billion in Medicaid payments, according to the AP. The organization would have to pay the fine under the federal False Claims Act. Kacsmaryk will hear arguments from both sides soon, but it’s unknown when he will issue his ruling.
Abortion is currently illegal in Texas, with almost no exceptions. This comes after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.
