New Hearing Requested Over Texas' Women's Health Program

September 5, 2012 — Planned Parenthood on Tuesday requested that a federal appeals court revisit a ruling that would allow Texas to exclude its clinics from a health program for low-income women, Reuters reports.

The court last month ruled that the state may bar groups affiliated with abortion providers from the Medicaid Women's Health Program, which provides preventive health services to more than 100,000 Texas women. The federal government is ending funding for the program because of Texas' actions, but the state plans to continue funding the program on its own.

Planned Parenthood in the filing asked the full court to hear the case again. The group argued that Texas is violating the organization's First Amendment rights by excluding clinics that use non-government funding to provide constitutionally protected abortion care. The group also noted that it does not provide abortion services at the facilities that participate in WHP (MacLaggan, Reuters, 9/4).