Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has announced that the state will defund Planned Parenthood for its reported misconduct, including the "barbaric" harvesting of baby body parts as shown in the series of recently released undercover videos.
"The gruesome harvesting of baby body parts by Planned Parenthood will not be allowed in Texas and the barbaric practice must be brought to an end. As such, ending the Medicaid participation of Planned Parenthood affiliates in the State of Texas is another step in providing greater access to safe healthcare for women while protecting our most vulnerable – the unborn," Abbott said.
Texas Inspector General Stuart Bowen sent a letter to Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast to say that "the state has determined that you and your Planned Parenthood affiliates are no longer capable of performing medical services in a professionally competent safe, legal and ethical manner."
The letter stated that Planned Parenthood committed violations including altering abortion techniques to maximise organs that can be harvested, failed safety standards to prevent infection and billing fraud, according to LifeSiteNews.
"Earlier this year, you committed and condoned numerous acts of misconduct captured on video that reveal repeated programme violations and breach the minimum standards of care required of a Medicaid enrollee," Bowen said.
In the fifth undercover video released by the Center for Medical Progress (CMP), Melissa Farrell, PPGC director of research, is shown telling investigators that she could assure abortionist to change their method of abortion.
"If we alter our process, and we are able to obtain intact foetal cadavers, we can make it part of the budget" to cover "dissections" and "splitting the specimens into different shipments" to the researchers' labs. It's all just a matter of line items," LifeSiteNews quoted her as saying in the video.
Farrell said she wanted to learn how to dissect babies. "I know it's sickening on some level, but it's fun," she said.
Bowen said in the letter, "Your termination and that of all your affiliates will not affect access to care in this state, because there are thousands of alternate providers in Texas, including federally qualified health centres, Medicaid-certified rural health clinic, and other health care providers across the State that participate in the Texas Women's Health Program and Medicaid."
"Texas is right to recognise that taxpayer money should go to fund local community health centres, not to subsidise a scandal-ridden, billion-dollar abortion business," said Alliance Defending Freedom Legal Counsel Kellie Fiedorek.
