A federal judge has ruled against the state of Texas which moved to arbitrarily defund Planned Parenthood for no substantive reason.
U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks ruled that the state did not provide evidence to justify their actions.
U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks said state health officials "likely acted to disenroll qualified health care providers from Medicaid without cause." He said the preliminary injunction will preserve the court's ability to render a meaningful decision on the case's merits.
"Such action would deprive Medicaid patients of their statutory right to obtain health care from their chosen qualified provider," wrote the judge who was appointed by Republican former President George H.W. Bush.
Given that Republicans have lost every single case they've litigated against Planned Parenthood, I wonder if there could be a strong legal case against the federal government should our Republican-controlled Congress go through with their plan to defund the organization.
Republican-controlled states have lost their cases against Planned Parenthood for various reasons ranging from their lack of evidence to violating federal law. It stands to reason, at least to me, that defunding Planned Parenthood nationwide by arbitrarily excluding them from Medicaid reimbursement could be unconstitutional. If not because there's no evidence against Planned Parenthood, it could also violate the rights of patients as Judge Sam Sparks has indicated.
Judge Sparks also recently ruled against the state's fetal burial rule that would have required healthcare providers to pay for the (mass) burial or cremation of fetal tissue.