On Friday, the Tennessee legislature banned teaching "gateway sexual activity" and "sexual conduct encouraging an individual to engage in a non-abstinent behavior" in sex-education classes. Nobody knows quite what conduct encouraging non-abstinent behavior is, which means it's probably "whatever Planned Parenthood does."
Meanwhile in Texas (there's always a meanwhile in Texas), the state's recent showdown with the government, which resulted in the revoking of Medicaid Women's Health Program funding, was blocked by a district court, reinstating Planned Parenthood to women's clinics and preserving the status-quo until the issue goes to trial.
Texas had revoked its share of WHP funds from clinics that performed abortions, but, quoting myself,
the federal government doesn’t provide funding for states that restrict its uses on such ideological terms, a fact of which Perry was in full knowledge. No Planned Parenthood, no federal funding.
So thanks to conservatives’ objections over 3% of Planned Parenthood’s services, over 100,000 low-income women in Texas will lose $40 million in health services, including cancer screenings and contraception. As you no doubt know, the Hyde Amendment already prohibits government funding for abortion procedures, which means Perry’s objection is simply that it goes to an organization that happens provides abortions in the same building as other services, but in no circumstances for those abortions. So actually women lost their health funding over nothing.
A district judge in Austin found that
the Planned Parenthood organizations that filed the lawsuit proved there could be irreparable harm to their clinics that rely on Women’s Health Program funding to help uninsured Texans access cervical and breast cancer screenings, birth control and STD testing. [The district court] also expressed doubt that the state could find enough providers by Tuesday to replace the Planned Parenthood clinics with other health providers. (Via Texas Tribune)
The state argued that by allotting federal funds to clinics that also performed abortions, the clinics were able to apply those funds to normal procedures, thus "freeing up" funds for abortons. (Money is fungible!) The judge didn't buy it, instead finding that Texas was penalizing clinics for providing a protected service; abortion remains legal, though reading the news could cause you to think otherwise.
Texas has expressed a desire to replace Planned Parenthood with comparable, more ideologically accomodating organizations, which would render the ruling null. But the state was unable to fill a $28 billion budget gap last session, so good luck to them finding $40 million worth of health services for over 100,000 women on the fly.
The ruling only stands until the case goes to trial, and then an appeals court, etc. etc., might as well just ask Justice Kennedy what he thinks right now. In the meantime, women living in poor or rural areas may continue to receive medical care, and PP doesn't have to lay anybody off. Score one for the good guys (and gals).
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Related: Texas Women Plague Rick Perry’s Facebook Wall With Menstruation Questions
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