Texas Authorities Raid Multiple Planned Parenthood Locations, Seeking Patient Records
After canceling all Medicaid contracts with Planned Parenthood affiliates this past Monday, Texas authorities have now raided Planned Parenthood locations in San Antonio, Houston, and Dallas. Investigators are apparently looking for any documents or records related to patients who have donated fetal tissue at any point in the past five years.
According to Planned Parenthood, the state’s Health and Human Services Commission is looking for everything from patient and billing records to personnel information.
In a statement to Mother Jones, CEO of Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas wrote wrote that the organization will “make every effort to comply with the state’s request but see this is an excuse to take healthcare away from thousands of women and men who rely on Planned Parenthood for preventive care.”
While the Planned Parenthood Federation of America issued the following:
Representatives from the Texas Office of Inspector General showed up at Planned Parenthood health centers in Brownsville, Houston, Dallas and San Antonio demanding administrative records. Underscoring the political motivations behind these raids, officials in San Antonio showed up at Planned Parenthood’s health center at the same time as a reporter, in what appeared to be a coordinated move. Reporters received notice of the contract termination prior to Planned Parenthood affiliates. It seems that, after the fact, the state raided Planned Parenthood’s health centers looking for an excuse to justify its politically motivated actions
The move to defund and, if the state has its way, ultimately shut down Planned Parenthood clincs across Texas comes as Texas Governor Greg Abbott continues a mission spurred by the falsified Planned Parenthood videos that continue to be debunked time and time again.
This helps explain why Gov. Abbott has been referred to as “public enemy number one for women in Texas.”