‘Major setback’: Court ruling involving billions puts Planned Parenthood’s future at risk

By Bob Unruh

Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion corporation, continued submitting claims for its services to Medicaid programs in Texas and Louisiana even after those states disqualified it from those programs.

Now, under a federal false claims case fight, its very future is in doubt.

It’s because it could be held liable for $1.8 billion in damages, and even for a corporate giant as big as Planned Parenthood, that would sting.

Get the hottest, most important news stories on the Internet – delivered FREE to your inbox as soon as they break! Take just 30 seconds and sign up for WND's Email News Alerts!

It is Law360 that confirmed a ruling by the full 5th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals had rejected Planned Parenthood’s demand for immunity in the case.

And the details were reported by the Gateway Pundit.

The report said the ruling was a “major setback” for Planned Parenthood Federation of America which could face an order to repay the nearly $2 billion to taxpayers.

That’s the result after the appeals court rejected the company’s interlocutory appeal for lack of jurisdiction.

The case now returns to the federal district court in the Northern District of Texas, where Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk already had rejected the company’s insistence it is immune.

The case falls under the federal False Claims Act and was triggered by explosive 2015 undercover videos released by the Center for Medical Progress.

The Pundit explained, “Those videos captured Planned Parenthood officials discussing the harvesting and potential sale of aborted baby body parts.

“In the undercover video, Dr. Ann Schutt-Ainé, Chief Medical Officer of Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast, and Tram Nguyen, RN and Vice President of Abortion Access at Planned Parenthood Houston, are seen discussing the gruesome details of their procedures.

“In one particularly harrowing exchange, Schutt-Ainé said, ‘You told me about the proposition, and so now every time I do a D&E [dilation and evacuation abortion], I’m like, ‘Oh, there’s some lungs, there’s some kidneys.””

Be forewarned about the offensive nature of the video:

It was Fox that had reported before the decision was released that the ruling “could put Planned Parenthood, a prolific abortion vendor, on the hook for up to $1.8 billion.”

The fight is over the corporation’s use of Medicaid funds in Texas and Louisiana.

Jennie Bradley Lichter, president of March for Life, told Fox News Digital at the time the “stakes couldn’t be higher” and that the lawsuit could bankrupt Planned Parenthood, a nonprofit with hundreds of clinics across the country.

“Planned Parenthood is facing a repayment obligation of close to $2 billion because it continued to fill its coffers with taxpayers’ money even after two states had already disqualified it,” Lichter said. “If that obligation stands, it will strike a serious — even existential — blow to Planned Parenthood’s national operations and potentially change the abortion landscape in this country forever.”

The two states had disqualified Planned Parenthood from Medicaid cash in response to activist David Daleiden releasing video footage showing Planned Parenthood staff discussing selling aborted fetal tissue, the report said.

The imagery “set off a firestorm in the pro-life movement and caused it to ramp up its efforts to weaken the nonprofit,” the report said.

The abortion giant’s response was to sue Texas and Louisiana, and it initially won an injunction allowing it to keep getting tax money.

But that decision was reversed on appeal.

Then the newest case, seeking to claw back the millions of dollars Planned Parenthood had collected, was launched. A whistleblower filed a qui tam lawsuit under the federal False Claims Act and corresponding state laws, alleging the abortionists knowingly submitted false claims and failed to return millions in improperly collected Medicaid payments.

Under the law, treble damages and per-claim penalties are possible.

The report at the time noted a lawyer for the abortionists, Susan Manning, claimed the case was an attempt to put them out of business.

 

Bob Unruh

Bob Unruh joined WND in 2006 after nearly three decades with the Associated Press, as well as several Upper Midwest newspapers, where he covered everything from legislative battles and sports to tornadoes and homicidal survivalists. He is currently a news editor for the WND News Center, and also a photographer whose scenic work has been used commercially. Read more of Bob Unruh's articles here.


,

Leave a Comment