Another effort by the Republican leadership of Texas to restrict access to abortion has been shot down by a federal judge, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
U.S District Judge Sam Sparks permanently enjoined the state from blocking Planned Parenthood from the state's Medicaid program, which provides health care to low income Texans.
The rule, which was issued in December by the Texas Department of State Health Services, was based on a series of undercover videos recorded in the offices of Planned Parenthood in Houston, which alleged to show executives offering to sell fetal body parts and tissue, which is a violation of state Medicaid policy.
Vyonne Gutierrez of Planned Parenthood says the state's effort failed because they had no proof of the sale of body parts, and the issue of Planned Parenthood's competency to perform medical procedures was never in question.
"Not whether or not Planned Parenthood is a high quality health care provider, the case was based on fraudulent videos," she said.
Gutierrez has repeatedly denied that the videos show any Planned Parenthood officials selling fetal body parts, and said the videos were faked.
"These videos that had been highly edited and were filed by anti abortion activists," she said.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton says he will appeal, and Dr. Joe Pojman, who heads the Texas Alliance for Life, says the appeal has a good chance of success."
Breaking established law in the practice of abortion should make them ineligible to be a Medicaid provider," he said.
It's yet another major setback for the state's conservative leadership's attempt to restrict access to abortion.
Last year the U.S. Supreme Court struck down strict new regulations for abortion clinics which succeeded in shutting down about half of the state's abortion facilities.
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