District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk heard oral arguments from all parties Tuesday in a case Planned Parenthood said would bankrupt every Texas affiliate if it was decided in favor of the state.
“This lawsuit was brought with the sole goal of shutting down Planned Parenthood,” the group said in a statement.
The lawsuit was filed in Amarillo, a city that does not have a Planned Parenthood clinic, but ensuring it would be heard by Kacsmaryk.
Kacsmaryk, appointed by former President Trump, invalidated the approval of the abortion pill mifepristone earlier this year.
The current lawsuit was brought by an anonymous plaintiff who is part of the anti-abortion group Center for Medical Progress, which in 2015 released an edited video alleging Planned Parenthood providers illegally sold aborted fetal tissue for medical research. The organization denied the claims and a grand jury found no wrongdoing by the group.
The suit is backed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) and alleges Planned Parenthood engaged in Medicaid fraud by continuing to bill the state for health services administered during a period when the organization was fighting an attempt by Texas to cut it off from the state’s Medicaid funds.
What happened: The roots of the lawsuit date back to December 2016, when Texas filed a final notice to kick Planned Parenthood off of Medicaid.
Planned Parenthood appealed to a federal court, which blocked Texas from moving forward and allowed the organization to continue operating and billing Medicaid as normal.
Then in 2020, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit reversed that decision, and its ruling was eventually upheld in 2021. Planned Parenthood is no longer part of Texas Medicaid.
Texas alleges Planned Parenthood should have filed an administrative appeal in 2016, rather than a legal one. By declining to do so, Paxton argued Planned Parenthood gave up its right to continue operating and billing Medicaid, and every service billed after Feb. 1, 2017 was fraudulent.
But Planned Parenthood’s Texas affiliates argue all services were legally allowed to be billed because of court orders.
Texas knew the affiliates were providing the services, reimbursed them just like any other health provider, and never asked for a repayment until filing the lawsuit, they argued.
