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Judge Denies Texas Request For Feds To Keep Funding Health Program

The program, which does not pay for abortions, provides care such as breast and cervical cancer screenings and birth control, and Planned Parenthood says it serves nearly half the 115,000 Texas women who participate.

A judge on Friday denied a request by Texas for an order requiring the federal government to continue providing money for a state health program for low-income women, Reuters reports.

U.S. District Judge Walter Smith in Waco, Texas, denied the state’s motion for a preliminary injunction that would have prevented the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services from cutting off Medicaid money for the Women’s Health Program.

The federal government pays for most of the cost of the $40-million-a year-program but has told Texas that it will stop at the end of the year because a state decision to exclude Planned Parenthood from the program violates federal law.

Texas decided to enforce a state law that had been on the books for several years barring funding for abortion providers and affiliates.

The program, which does not pay for abortions, provides care such as breast and cervical cancer screenings and birth control, and Planned Parenthood says it serves nearly half the 115,000 Texas women who participate.

The state plans to launch a nearly identical program using only state money.

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