Appeals Court Paves the Way for Texas to Defund Planned Parenthood

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5^thCircuit handed a victory to pro-life advocates who want to see Planned Parenthood defunded. The Court overturned a ruling by U.S. district judge Samuel Sparks which prevented Texas from kicking Planned Parenthood out of the state’s Medicaid.

The Lone Star State’s decision to defund Planned Parenthood came after undercover videos by the Center for Medical Progress appeared to show officials from the nation’s largest abortion provider negotiating to sell tissue from aborted babies. Planned Parenthood argued that the videos were “deceptively edited.”

In his ruling, Sparks said the case read like a “best-selling novel” and dismissed both the videos and a report written by the Texas Health and Human Services Commission’s Office of Inspector General. He said the report was too flimsy to be used to “expel a group of health care providers from a social health care program for families and individuals with limited resources.”

The Court of Appeals disagreed with Judge Sparks. They vacated his injunction with blocked Texas from booting Planned Parenthood from Medicaid and remanded the case back to the lower court for further review. If Sparks reinstates his injunction, he will have to do so using a different legal standard.

Planned Parenthood blasted the decision. Their spokesperson, Erica Sackin, said, “it is completely…