The Quickie: Texas Medicaid Lawsuit Is Trying to Shut Down Planned Parenthood
For Immediate Release: Aug. 4, 2023
Welcome to “The Quickie” — Planned Parenthood Action Fund’s daily tipsheet on the top health care & reproductive rights stories of the day. You can read “The Quickie'' online here.
In today’s Quickie: baseless TX lawsuit threatens to shut down PP, setting the record straight on Rep. Cuellar, and OH and MO politicians try to scuttle abortion ballot initiatives.
BASELESS TEXAS LAWSUIT THREATENS TO SHUT DOWN PLANNED PARENTHOOD HEALTH CENTERS. Yesterday, Ms. Magazine detailed the latest threat to Planned Parenthood and its patients: a meritless lawsuit filed by the state of Texas and an anonymous plaintiff that seeks $1.8 billion in penalties. The case is before Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, the same judge who ruled that mifepristone should be removed from the market earlier this year.
“The stakes of this baseless case could not be higher—this is an active effort to shut down Planned Parenthood health centers,” said Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Federation of America. “Affordable, high-quality sexual and reproductive healthcare is already under threat, and these politically-motivated allegations could upend care for millions of patients in Texas and potentially across the country.”
As the article explains, should the plaintiffs prevail in this case, Planned Parenthood health centers could shut down, depriving millions of people of essential health care, especially women, people with low incomes, young people, and immigrants. Sometimes this care is life saving, as it was for Natalie Vallot, who had a lump in her breast diagnosed by Planned Parenthood in her 20s.
“The lump turned out to be benign, but because of that experience I started getting regular mammograms much earlier than most,” Vallot said. “My experience would have been incredibly different had it not been for the routine, preventative healthcare I received at that Texas Planned Parenthood health center.”
Read the full article here.
REMINDING VOTERS OF REP. HENRY CUELLAR’S ANTI-ABORTION RECORD: Today, in response to Rep. Henry Cuellar’s 2024 reelection bid, Planned Parenthood Action Fund (PPAF) and NARAL Pro-Choice America reminded voters of his anti-abortion record:
“Henry Cuellar is the last anti-abortion Democrat in the House. He has repeatedly voted against measures to protect abortion access and, to add insult to injury, celebrated with anti-abortion advocates after Roe was overturned. Despite the access challenges that his own constituents in Texas face to critical reproductive health care, like abortion, he has remained committed to voting against measures to protect their rights. This is an all hands on deck moment and we need our elected leaders to use their power and influence to both protect access to sexual and reproductive health care, and to lift up leaders who share those values with the overwhelming majority of voters.”
According to a 2022 Washington Post-Ipsos survey, 68% of Latino voters say abortion should be legal and two-thirds of Catholic Latino voters opposed the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
Throughout his time in Congress, Rep. Cuellar has repeatedly voted against bills to support abortion access and for bills that make it harder for people to get basic health care. Don’t worry though: PPAF has the receipts on his anti-abortion record right here.
OHIO & MISSOURI POLITICIANS CAN’T BEAT ABORTION BALLOT INITIATIVES — SO THEY’RE TRYING TO CHANGE THE RULES: On Tuesday, Ohio voters head to the polls to vote on whether to raise the ballot initiative passage threshold from a simple majority to a 60% supermajority. The backers of Issue 1 have made no secret of why they’re pushing this initiative: it’s to scuttle the proposed reproductive freedom constitutional amendment on November’s ballot. Anti-abortion politicians know they can’t win in a fair fight, so they’re trying to change the rules to push through their unpopular policies.
“These same folks made it illegal last year to hold August elections, except for cases of financial emergencies,” said University of Dayton Professor Christopher Devine, to KCUR. “And now they brought the August election back, costing $15 million. I think pretty clearly because the abortion measure is getting on the ballot in November, they're trying to raise the threshold before the vote happens.”
Ohio’s not the only state where some politicians are considering limiting direct democracy so they can block the people from implementing progressive policies. Missouri Republicans are also pushing a similar rule change, most recently connecting it to future efforts to put abortion on the ballot. Progressive advocates are closely watching efforts to undermine ballot initiatives and expect attacks to continue in many states.
Read more at KCUR.