WASHINGTON, D.C., January 22, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – Today the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) granted the state of Texas a Medicaid waiver to fund the Healthy Texas Women program which does not include abortion businesses like Planned Parenthood. This decision, which comes on the anniversary of the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court ruling imposing abortion on demand across the U.S., reverses the Obama administration’s decision to deny a similar waiver to the state in 2013.
“President Trump has repeatedly kept his promise to stop taxpayer funding of the big abortion industry including Planned Parenthood. Abortion is not health care,” responded Marjorie Dannenfelser, President of the Susan B. Anthony List, in a statement.
“When Texas lawmakers exercised their right to fund women’s health care without underwriting abortion businesses, they were punished by the Obama administration and smeared by abortion activists and their media allies,” Dannenfelser explained.
“But the nation’s largest abortion chain, Planned Parenthood, issued its annual report this month showing massive increases in both abortions and taxpayer funding at the same time they have seen steep declines in their number of patients, cancer screening and prevention services, breast exams, pap tests, and even contraceptive services. Restoring Texas’s decision regarding use of federal funds is an acknowledgement that the Lone Star State was right all along. We thank President Trump and Secretary Azar and urge them to immediately free all states to act on the will of their citizens to support women’s health care without encouraging abortion.”
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott thanked Trump in a statement.
“The Lone Star State is once again in partnership with the federal government to provide meaningful family planning and health services while fostering a culture of life,” said Abbott. “This collaboration is a symbol of our commitment to championing the lives of Texas women. I am grateful to President Trump and his administration for approving this waiver, and for his commitment to protecting the unborn while providing much-needed health resources to Texas women.”
In 2011 the Texas legislature enacted legislation to end state family planning funding for abortion businesses including Planned Parenthood. Effective in 2013, the Obama administration withdrew funding for Texas’s Medicaid family planning program funded by a similar waiver. While that administration could have approved the funding with the Texas policy favoring childbirth over abortion, they did not and instead withdrew federal support. Then-Governor Rick Perry pledged to fully fund the program using state dollars.