AUSTIN, Texas, Oct. 19 (UPI) — Texas officials are attempting to prevent Planned Parenthood from receiving Medicaid reimbursements in response to recent controversial undercover videos.
The Texas Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General sent a letter to Planned Parenthood locations in Texas informing them of the move.
“Earlier this year, you committed and condoned numerous acts of misconduct captured on video that reveal repeated program violations and breach the minimum standards of care required of a Medicaid enrollee,” Inspector General Stuart Bowen Jr. said in the letter, the Austin American-Statesman reported.
Violations that the Texas Office of the Inspector cited in in a letter include a suggestion that doctors could use a different method to perform an abortion in order to preserve intact fetal tissue, The Dallas Morning News reported. The office also accused Planned Parenthood of creating an unsanitary work environment by allowing access to the undercover video group.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said the move was an “unyielding commitment to both protecting life and providing women’s health services.”
“Ending the Medicaid participation of Planned Parenthood affiliates in the State of Texas is another step in providing greater access to safe healthcare for women while protecting our most vulnerable – the unborn,” Abbott said.
Planned Parenthood has been accused of attempting to make profits from fetal tissue after conducting abortions. An anti-abortion group released videos of members meeting Planned Parenthood representatives while undercover — videos which the anti-abortion group state are evidence Planned Parenthood sells fetal tissue. The women’s health organization said the videos were heavily edited and were not an accurate representation of the practice.
Last week Planned Parenthood said it would stop selling fetal tissue for profit — a practice that is legal under a 1993 law. The organization has not commented on the letter sent by Bowen.
“The real goal of these extremists has nothing to do with our fetal tissue donation compliance process but is instead to ban abortion in the U.S. and block women from getting any health care from Planned Parenthood,” Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards said last week.
Comment count on this article reflects comments made on Breitbart.com and Facebook. Visit Breitbart's Facebook Page.