The latest conflict between the national and state governments appears to be over Planned Parenthood:
GOP lawmakers have gone to great lengths to force Planned Parenthood out of Texas’ Medicaid Women’s Health Program, which provides family planning and reproductive health care — but not abortions — for more than 100,000 low-income women every year. They’ve considered legislation and passed budget riders. They’ve asked for opinions from the Texas attorney general. A hearing at the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) Thursday is expected to try to seal the deal by clarifying regulatory language to exclude Planned Parenthood from the state program.
But the Obama administration may have headed off their plans. Last week, federal officials shot down an Indiana plan to prohibit the use of Medicaid funds — the joint state/federal dollars that cover poor children, pregnant women and the disabled — at Planned Parenthood clinics. And the director of the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS) sent a memo to all 50 states reminding them that while Medicaid doesn’t fund abortions, Medicaid programs can’t exclude health care providers who offer them. States who don't comply could risk the loss of federal Medicaid funds.
