Texas Sues Obama Administration in Abortion Dispute

Texas filed a lawsuit against the Obama administration on Friday for ending federal funding to a state-federal program whose services include reproductive and sexual health screenings for 130,000 poor Texas women.

On March 15, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced an end to federal funding for the state’s Medicaid Family Planning Demonstration Program. In making the decision, CMS cited a 2011 Texas law that would bar Medicaid funds for the Texas Women’s Health Program (TWHP) from going to clinics that also provide abortions. State Attorney General Greg Abbott filed the suit challenging the administration’s decision.

The state law required ending TWHP if the federal government would not agree to grant a waiver accommodating the legislation, which applies to clinics even if no state money goes to abortions. The law’s restriction of women’s choice of health care providers is not permitted under federal law, so the government had no choice but not to renew funding, CMS Director Cindy Mann has stated.

The attorney general’s suit asks that a judge affirm that Texas law can restrict funding from going to abortion providers. The suit says that in addition to being illegal, arbitrary, and capricious, the federal government’s decision “also violates the Constitution ... by seeking to commandeer and coerce the states’ lawmaking processes into awarding taxpayer subsidies to elective abortion providers.”

The federal government pays about 90 percent of the cost of TWHP. On March 16, Texas Gov. Rick Perry repeated his pledge to fund the services “with or without the federal government.”

The suit, filed with the US District Court for the Western District of Texas, is against US Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and her agency, which includes CMS.

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