The U.S. government has warned states moving to defund women’s health group Planned Parenthood that they may be in conflict with federal law, officials said on Wednesday.
Advertisement
HHS has reinterated that states cannot exclude providers from Medicaid based on the medical services they provide, but says states can exclude providers for reasons including fraud or criminal acts. None of the money went toward abortions, Arkansas Department of Human Services spokeswoman Amy Webb said.
One of those states does donate the tissue to StemExpress, according to a spokesman for Planned Parenthood.
Arkansas is ceasing Medicaid payments to Planned Parenthood.
Now, however, Jen Gunter, an OB-GYN, has posted excerpts on her blog of a research paper co-authored by Carson in 1992 in which he and his team used tissue from fetuses aborted in weeks 9 and 17.
Hutchinson ordered the state’s Department of Human Services to terminate “any and all existing contracts” with Planned Parenthood.
In the South, withholding funding would have the most impact in Louisiana, where more dollars have been paid to Planned Parenthood.
The governor’s action came after a conservative anti-abortion group released video and transcripts of conversations with Planned Parenthood executives, doctors and staff members in other states. Alabama’s Medicaid program has paid Planned Parenthood health clinics in Mobile and Birmingham only about $4,400 over the past two years for contraceptives.
That’s the statement that brought the crowd to their feet at the meeting, but this favorable reaction comes after scrutiny following the governor’s decision to terminate the agreement between the Alabama Medicaid Agency and Planned Parenthood. However, in the United States, selling fetal tissue for profit is illegal.
Planned Parenthood responded by calling Gov. Hutchinson’s move a “political grandstanding”, and saying that it “could have real and devastating consequences for women who rely on Planned Parenthood for birth control, cancer screenings, STD tests and other lifesaving care”. I wonder if maybe some people might at some point become concerned about that and ask why is that happening and what can be done to alleviate that situation.
Advertisement
StemExpress did, however, lose a request for an injunction on Friday that would have allowed it to access videos and documentation obtained by CMP during the Planned Parenthood investigation.
