By Elizabeth Gresosky
Following the Republicans’ loss in Texas, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that it is intervening in a lawsuit against Planned Parenthood in Texas that outgoing Attorney General Ken Paxton has led up until this point.
Previously, the DOJ under President Biden had declined to intervene.
The five-year-old lawsuit stems originally from undercover reporting spearheaded by David Daleiden of the Center for Medical Progress (CMP), who is known for exposing the horrors of the abortion industry.
Years ago, the CMP released footage procured by an undercover reporter at the National Abortion Federation’s (NAF’s) 2015 commercial trade show speaking with employees of the Planned Parenthood branch based in Houston, Texas, then called Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast.
In the video, the Planned Parenthood employees appeared to freely speak about different methods and timing protocols used to obtain intact aborted babies for organ harvesting.
At one point, one of these employees remarks, “I’m like, ‘Yeah, I have like a leg for you!’ I’m like, oh sh**, if other people were to hear me, they’d be like, you are f***ing evil.”
CMP’s additional reporting revealed that these methods were likely financially motivated:
“A few weeks after this conversation, in June 2015, CMP emailed Nguyen and Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast VP of Research Melissa Farrell an undercover contract for $750 per fetal liver and $1,600 per pair of fetal liver and thymus. In unsealed emails produced in federal court, Nguyen forwarded the contract to PPGC’s Regional Medical & Surgical Services Director, Dyann Santos, writing, ‘FYI—we’re still trying to move forward with this,’ to which Santos asked, ‘Do you want to do this?’ and to which Nguyen replied, “Yes ma’am.’”
At the time, Daleiden made the following statement: “Planned Parenthood repeatedly told Congress, the courts, and the public that it had ‘rebuffed’ any opportunity to sell aborted baby body parts in Texas. This finally-released undercover footage shows that in reality, Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast was ghoulishly eager to rip healthy babies out of vulnerable patients whole and alive, and mutilate their bodies after to sell body parts for top dollar. Kamala Harris, as California Attorney General, raided my home and seized this footage to try to block it from release for eight years, on orders from Planned Parenthood and NAF. It’s time for justice under the law for Big Abortion.”
Following these undercover videos, the Texas OIG (Office of Inspector General) sent letters in October 2015 terminating the Medicaid-partner status of five Planned Parenthood locations in Texas, stating that the organizations were “no longer capable of performing medical services in a professionally competent, safe, legal, and ethical manner.”
For years, each side continued litigating – Planned Parenthood arguing that it should continue to receive Medicaid payments, with the state of Texas maintaining that they were no longer approved providers.
In November 2020, the Fifth Circuit upheld the decision to remove the Planned Parenthood locations as Medicaid partners.
After that ruling, the current five-year-old lawsuit was filed, arguing that Planned Parenthood illegally collected Medicaid payments during that period of litigation and now owes the state of Texas $1.8 billion.
Given that Planned Parenthood recently reported an annual revenue of $2.1 billion, that payout could theoretically shut the organization down – not just in Texas, but nationally.
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