Alabama Governor Robert Bentley overstepped his authority by terminating Planned Parenthood's Medicaid provider contract for no legitimate reason and today a judge ordered the state to restore funding.
U.S District Judge Myron Thompson issued an order that temporarily bars Alabama from cutting off Medicaid contracts with the group's clinics in Alabama. [...]
In his 66-page opinion, Thompson said the state did not identify a legal reason to cut off funding to Medicaid and that the action likely violated a requirement of the federal Medicaid Act that prevents states from barring family planning providers for reasons unrelated to quality of care.
This fight obviously isn't over but I see no reason to believe the state will be any more successful in a higher court. Not a single state or federal investigation has uncovered evidence of wrongdoing at Planned Parenthood clinics and even the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, Jason Chaffetz, has admitted they've found no evidence of wrongdoing.
There's no there, there. Rumors and conspiracy theories spread by deceptively edited videos do not hold up in federal court.
Louisiana was also ordered to restore Planned Parenthood's Medicaid provider contract last week.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott showed up late to the party and terminated Planned Parenthood's Medicaid provider contract last week on the same day that Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal was ordered to restore funding. I don't expect the state of Texas will be any more successful in court than Alabama or Louisiana.