Texas raids Planned Parenthood chop shops to investigate Medicaid fraud by abortionists

(NaturalNews) In recent days, investigators in Texas served subpoenas at three Planned Parenthood facilities in the state to ascertain whether employees there are guilty of defrauding the Medicaid program, Lifesite News reported, citing various sources.

Officials with the Texas Office of Inspector General delivered subpoenas to Planned Parenthood facilities in San Antonio, Houston and Dallas on the morning of October 22 and demanded they turn over employee and patient records for inspection, according to officials at the clinics.

Lifesite News reported that inspectors from the IG's office did not immediately disclose the purpose behind their visit, while an official from the Texas Health and Human Services Commission told local media the reason for the subpoenas was "oversight."

The New York Times reported that the subpoenas were served three days after Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced a decision to end Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood following revelations over the summer via a series of undercover investigative videos from the Center for Medical Progress appearing to show Planned Parenthood officials negotiating the sale of aborted fetal body parts for profit. As Evil.news reported, a some of the aborted babies being dismembered for their organs may have been born alive.

Other states have also cut off Medicaid funds to Planned Parenthood facilities, including neighboring Louisiana, where opponents of the defunding have sued in court.

Prima facie case of fraud

As for Texas, Lifesite News reported that the raids took place over charges that PP clinics there might have been using Medicaid money to fund abortions; currently there is a federal ban on using tax money to fund abortion procedures.

"This has been a day that I have been waiting for," Abby Johnson, the former manager of a Planned Parenthood facility in Texas, told LifeSite News.

"The breadth and depth of what was requested this morning was unprecedented," Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas' vice president for community affairs, Sarah Wheat, told the Austin Statesman, according to Lifesite News.

The site reported:

A letter written Monday by Inspector General Stuart Bowen Jr. cited undercover video recordings by the Center for Medical Progress that show Planned Parenthood agreeing to alter its abortion technique to maximize the number of body parts harvested and to receive payments.

The inspector also mentioned a "prima facie case of fraud."

Clinic officials denied they had done anything wrong.

"Representatives from the Texas Office of Inspector General showed up at Planned Parenthood health centers in Houston, Dallas and San Antonio looking for an excuse to take health care away from thousands of women and men who rely on Planned Parenthood for preventive care — but what they will see is professional, compassionate and quality health care," said Yvonne Gutierrez, the executive director of Planned Parenthood Texas Votes, in a statement, according to Lifesite News. "Despite their efforts to distort the truth, health care — no matter what — is what happens at Planned Parenthood."

"Our goal is to shutter their doors"

Johnson said the charges ring true.

"I am confident that these investigators will find enough information to not only continue to defund Planned Parenthood in our state, but to also disqualify them from any future funding efforts," she said.

Johnson filed a lawsuit in 2012 alleging that Texas Planned Parenthood facilities fraudulently billed the Texas Women's Health Program of more than $5.7 million. In 2013, Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast paid $4.3 million to settle allegations of Medicaid fraud, sending funds back to the state of Texas and the federal government.

In September, the Alliance Defending Freedom released a report^[PDF] claiming that "improper practices" by Planned Parenthood cost all taxpayers $129.7 million at a minimum.

"Our goal is not just to take away their money. Our goal is to shutter their doors," Johnson told LifeSite News. "I believe we will see that day, in large part due to courageous men and women who have stepped away from their jobs at Planned Parenthood and have come forward with incriminating information."

Sources include:

LifeSiteNews.com

NYTimes.com

Evil.news

ADFMedia.org^[PDF]