Posted on 10/27/2012 2:48:01 PM PDT by smoothsailing
October 26, 2012
Steven Ertelt
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has refused to grant an additional hearing to Planned Parenthood regarding Texas’ legislation to end taxpayer funding of abortion companies, including Planned Parenthood.
The decision effectively ends the legal controversy surrounding the law and affirms Texas’ right to stop taxpayer dollars from flowing to abortion providers.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry applauded the decision, saying, “Today’s ruling affirms yet again that in Texas the Women’s Health Program has no obligation to fund Planned Parenthood and other organizations that perform or promote abortion. In Texas we choose life, and we will immediately begin defunding all abortion affiliates to honor and uphold that choice.”
This morning the Susan B. Anthony List praised the decision.
“States like Texas have the right to stop taxpayer funding of abortion providers. The Fifth Circuit court’s decision validates this and we applaud Texas for getting taxpayers out of the abortion business,” said SBA List President Marjorie Dannenfelser. “Abortion-centered organizations like Planned Parenthood neither need nor deserve taxpayer dollars.
Dannenfelser told LifeNews: “Governor Perry, the pro-life Texas state legislature, as well as our friends at Texas Right to Life deserve much praise. Even after the Obama Administration carried out its threat and cut funding for Texas’ Women’s Health Program because the state defunded abortion providers, Texas refused to yield. Governor Perry vowed to keep the Women’s Health Program, which serves vulnerable women, fully funded using state dollars. Texas has shown the rest of America what it means to be both pro-woman and pro-life.”
Last year the Texas state legislature defunded abortion providers including Planned Parenthood of state-controlled family planning funding. In December 2011, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) sent a letter to the Texas Health and Human Services Commission rejecting Texas’ law by turning down the state’s request to run their own family planning program. In March 2012, HHS officially stopped $30 million in federal funding for Texas’ Women’s Health Program because they excluded Planned Parenthood. Governor Perry pledged to fully fund the program using state dollars.
In August 2012, the Fifth Circuit court overturned the April 2012 ruling of a Texas judge who granted a preliminary injunction to Planned Parenthood affiliates while they sued the state of Texas over the law. Previously, Texas Governor Rick Perry pointed out that Planned Parenthood clinics represent less than two percent of the more than 2,500 enrolled providers.
Planned Parenthood filed a lawsuit against Texas contending that the new law prohibiting it from participating in the Women’s Health Program is unconstitutional discrimination. The lawsuit asked the court for an injunction to stop enforcement of the rules preventing Planned Parenthood from getting taxpayer funding via the program , saying the rules violate their rights by putting an “unconstitutional condition on their participation” in the Women’s Health Program.
However, state officials quickly appealed the ruling — with Attorney General Greg Abbott filing an emergency motion for stay in the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Judge Jerry E. Smith granted the stay “pending further order of this court” and requested a response from the abortion business by the close of business today.
In response, President Obama withdrew all federal support for the program, and Planned Parenthood sued the state of Texas. Judge Lee Yeakel blocked the law from going into effect, yet Yeakel’s ruling was appealed by Attorney General Greg Abbott, and the Fifth Circuit Court removed the block.
In addition to these approximately 4,000 agencies, Governor Perry’s office has identified another 2,500 eligible providers with 4,600 locations across the state. Planned Parenthood runs 69 facilities.
Before the lawsuit, the Obama Administration cut off the Women’s Health Care Program (WHP) for over 100,000 Texas women at over 2,400 providers for the sake of Planned Parenthood, which provides only limited health service at 44 facilities in Texas. In response, Governor Rick Perry and state lawmakers found their own funding for it.
Good, I was wrong about Perry. Keep up the good work Perry. Now they’ve defunded Planned Parenthood.
Texas is looking like a great place to live.. They also threatened to arrest U.N. ‘election monitors’ if they dare enter the State. Simply AWESOME.
Indeed!
In fairness, he told them they would have to abide by our election laws governing poll watchers, or he would arrest them.
As much as some of us might LIKE for him to have told the varmints 'keep OUT!'...he didn't :-)
Thank you SO much for this. I was well and truly needing some good news. Planned Parenthood is like a vampire with its dental daggars in your throat. Finally found a court (and a state) that would knock their teeth out.
Since PP funding is not written into the Constitution, only a law could have forced the government to pay them, so a law can be rescinded. What’s the problem with that? If the fed wants to fund PP, let them (until real Repubs take power and vote it out!). How does the law force states to fund them?
Someone has finally put a statewide stop to this horror. Congratulations Texas!
And follow up on keeping those UN nazis at bay.
I was happy to read this too!
I don’t care what anyone says, I like Rick Perry. :)
This is the opposite result from the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals’ ruling striking down an identical law in Indiana. This matter is headed for the Supreme Court.
You beat me to it. Texas can defund PP, but Indiana can’t? I agree, headed to the SC. God help us there with people like the traitorous Judge Roberts on the court.
The way I read it, Texas has won, there will be no appeal. What Indiana does is seperate.
Confusion here!
If the state cuts off state money to fund abortion clinics, how can the federal government insist that the state spend state money on an activity it doesn’t want to pay for?
planned abortionhood should receive absolutely no money from any state or federal agency, period.
they are placing millions of dollars of ads to fight Romney and Republicans in this election. they are totally partisan.
why any court should even have to “rule” on something so transparent is ridiculous.
The Constitution was written for the common people, not for “constitutional scholars” which of course barry obama is supposed to claim.
I really think that if a person takes an oath to the Constitution he/she should be accountable for it. Ignorance is no excuse.
politicians are supposed to take an oath also. that eliminates socialists, communists and fascists and islamist fundamentalists.
voting is a privilege and not a right. if you have no skin in the game, you have no right to vote. a Constitutional test would be appropriate.
You cannot take an oath to the Constitution if you have not read it and do not understand it.
I want more than just an ID card to prove that you have the privilege to vote. that’s the way the Founding Fathers set it up, and they fought for their freedom and they were statesman.
No one has a right to vote. It is a privilege that you pay for because you contribute.
blessings, bobo
Thank God for Governor Perry!
and thank God for the Justices that actually followed the Constitution!
I am moving to Texas.
Blessings, bobo
It can insist all it wants, and the Fifth Circuit can tell Obama to stuff it! LOL!
Certainly PP can petition the USSC for cert on the Texas case on the basis of a conflict between the circuits on this issue. Ultimately the supremes will have to decide the issue.
Not the right, no, but the prerogative. Governments do not have rights.
That being said, duh!
You could be right, I’m no expert on these matters.
“How does the law force states to fund them”
It doesn’t. People make and courts accept false arguments all the time.
“if a person takes an oath to the Constitution he/she should be accountable”
There’s an old book called “Lone Star Planet” about a Texas-like society where citizens are legally allowed to assassinate government officials who violate their rights. They must simply show cause in court afterwards. I think it played off a suggestion by H.L. Mencken.
thanks, i will look that up!
Blessings, bobo
They can enter the state, they just cannot get within 100 feet of a polling place.
Good to see that some judges remember that laws are made by the legislature. By what penubra did the other courts stop the defunding of Sanger’s Eugenics Centers?
Premeditated Butcherhood will surely appeal. What do ye five Catholics on the SCOTUS rule? Or will the statists place state above Church again?
If I didn't live in Utah, I'd most definitely live in Texas!
“Texas is looking like a great place to live.. They also threatened to arrest U.N. ‘election monitors’ if they dare enter the State. Simply AWESOME.”
Good people are welcome anytime. If you are an Austin-thinking person, no. Too many ex CA freaks pollute our state capital.
Was gone for 24 years and couldnt wait to get back, and will never leave now.
Texas also comes across to me as another southern-state-type culture that I love, where boys are raised to be gentlemen and girls are raised to be ladies.
What part of Texas has the best, no-windy weather?
When we were trying to pass our own constitution amendment defining marriage, Governor Perry told a sneering homosexual contingent something like,"if you don't like the marriage laws of this state, move somewhere else." He shot up a few notches in my book with that statement.
I think that was a 2-1 and may be heard en banc. If so, especially given the 5th circuit ruling, it may be reversed.
Isn’t it common sense that the legislature which writes the budget can just not spend money on something if they so decide?
I wasn’t born in Texas but I got there as fast as I could.
Try East. Much more forested; the pines and rolling country help keep down the wind. And not so dry and hot, either.
I would think they could get specific right down to the penny and what is funded and what isn’t.
Surely you jest? Best weather in Texas? If we had weather like California, this state would look like India. Or maybe even SoCal. West - hot, dry, and windy. South - hot, humid, and windy. North - hot and windy. East - hot and humid, although today was splendid. Low of 35 and high of 57. June, July, and August is what keeps Texas from looking like Pahkistan.
There’s gotta be a place in Texas where it’s not humid or windy.
So long as he keeps gay marriage out, obamacare out and works towards the elimination of abortion in Texas, and keeps Planned Parenthood out he’ll have my support. We don’t want that crap here in Texas. Let the other 49 have theirs. Leave us out.
Agreed and AMEN
Good to see that some judges remember that laws are made by the legislature. By what penubra did the other courts stop the defunding of Sanger’s Eugenics Centers?
___________________________________
I know what you mean and I agree 97.4%. Except that real rights like life and liberty are not given to free people by an elected fellow citizen and lawmakers can’t take them away. They were given by a higher power then SCOTUS or any other court.
Unbelievable! First the UN and now PP.
Time to start thinking about a move to TX - I hear Corpus Christi is excellent.
Cowboys or Texans fan...that is the question.
Thank you Texas for showing us the way.
Make illegals work and if they want to live here they work in fields for three years for free ( room and board) they get a shovel and a spade; it's more than their countries would give us were we illegals. And then they get in line with those that are doing it right.
Get rid of la Raza, get rid of Obama and the czars, get rid of anything Code Pink, or Soros, get rid of all those textbooks ...*whew" I'm pooped but there's a LOT more
Get rid of the illegal health care plan, Holder, Sotomayer, Kagan and everything Obama has done make it illegal so we can reverse ALL OF HIS thuggish sodomizing ways. Get rid of all of it. Make America America again. all of it.
My name is Karliner, and I approve this message.
As far as elected officials, absolutely! Yet Obama can direct his Justice Department to "selectively" enforce laws already on the books and refuse to defend laws passed by a duly elected Congress? By telling ICE to stand down in prosecuting certain people here illegally and refusing to defend in court the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), he has shirked his sworn duty to the Constitution. These actions alone should be grounds for impeachment and even more certainly to deny him reelection. Wake up America!!!
Amen! Praise God! And they NEVER tell these girls that 10, 20, 30 years later they will become very depressed because they killed their unborn baby. It is tragic. I have met women who had abortions when they were young and dumb, and now they are SO depressed. it is just so tragic.
No, we're just a-holes that think fast and talk slow.
The monitors can enter the state. They can't break the law of the land about 100 ft within the boundry of the polling place. They might not get arrested. They might get detained.
We ain't heroic. We're jerks. Just like jerks in NY or NJ or anywhere on the east or left coast. Except we're mostly conservative, and don't get in your face until it's way, way, way too late.
I have rope. And tall trees.
/johnny
Up near Newfoundland. That's far north Texas.
Down here in the Heart of Texas, if it don't have a stinger in it's mouth, it's got one in its tail. The grassburrs bite the ankles. We have fleas the size of housecats and ticks that just suck a dog dry to the bone.
Summer heat looks like a nuke just hit, and winter winds don't have the promise of snow to moderate the temps, and hold in a little heat.
The girls are gap-toothed and ugly, the men are slow speaking and quick to anger.
Honestly? Call the State Department and ask what shots you need before you venture into the Heart of Texas.
It's an ugly place.
If I owned hell and Texas, I'd rent Texas and live in hell. ;)
Only bright spot is that Texans never exagerate.
/johnny
No, but thanks for playing.
And you forgot to mention dangerous.
/johnny
No, we agree 100%. God didn’t grant these funds, men did. It is up to men to take them back. That right resides either in the ballot box or the legislature. I don’t know the Texas Constitution, but the American Constitution doesn’t even allow this garbage, yet here we are.
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