The state of Oklahoma is taking steps to divorce itself from the Planned Parenthood abortion business after the company was caught selling the body parts of aborted babies.
A Medicaid agency is canceling the contracts it has with the abortion company.
Last year, Oklahoma pro-life Gov. Mary Fallin called for defunding Planned Parenthood after a state review discovered that the abortion giant’s state affiliates may be over-billing Medicaid.
Fallin that the Oklahoma Health Care Authority end its contracts with the abortion business’s affiliates that operate in the state.
Her call came after a state review of Planned Parenthood found a high rate of billing errors to Medicaid, 20.3 percent in one review and 14.1 percent in another, according to a letter Fallin submitted to the state Health Care Authority Board director, Nico Gomez.
In the past two years, the state gave the two Planned Parenthood affiliates more than $300,000 for Medicaid claims, according to Fallin’s office.
“These results are alarming,” Fallin said in the letter. “These errors result in over-billing to the Oklahoma taxpayer. Research strongly suggests that Planned Parenthood and its Oklahoma and national affiliates regularly, whether intentionally or negligently, engage in a pattern of practices resulting in the over-billing of state Medicaid programs.”
Now, those contracts are ending:
Oklahoma Health Care Authority Chief Executive Officer Nico Gomez said the agency notified Planned Parenthood of Central Oklahoma and Planned Parenthood of Arkansas and Eastern Oklahoma in February of its intent to terminate provider agreements with the two affiliates.
“My decision in February was made based upon what I firmly believe to be the best interests of this agency going forward,” Gomez told The Associated Press in a statement.
The state contracts with the two affiliates will remain in place until June 29, which Gomez said should provide members obtaining services at Planned Parenthood clinics time to make any necessary alternative arrangements.
The intent to terminate the contracts was made “without cause” under the parties’ agreements, which permit either Planned Parenthood or the agency to terminate the contracts, Gomez said.
The Alliance Defending Freedom, which has been involved in several lawsuits alleging that Planned Parenthood affiliates overbilled Medicaid, praised Fallin at the time.
“Governor Fallin is right to recognize that taxpayer money should go to fund local community health centers, not to subsidize a scandal-ridden, billion-dollar abortion business,” said ADF Legal Counsel Kellie Fiedorek. “Oklahomans shouldn’t be forced to give their money to Planned Parenthood, which has a long track record of abusive and potentially fraudulent billing practices, not to mention that it has also been caught in authenticated undercover videos trafficking aborted babies’ body parts and has repeatedly failed to report the sexual abuse of girls. That tax money should be redirected to trusted health care providers.”
Fallin’s letter emphasized that, without Planned Parenthood, Oklahomans will have access to many quality healthcare providers all across the state.
“There are only two Planned Parenthood affiliates in the state operating in about six metropolitan locations in Oklahoma City and Tulsa,” according to the letter.
“However, there are more than 120 other metropolitan and rural providers available … all of whom provide a broader spectrum of health care services than Planned Parenthood’s limited metropolitan locations.”
Fallin’s letter also cited evidence of Planned Parenthood’s fraudulent billing practices in other states.
One whistleblower lawsuit involves a former Iowa Planned Parenthood manager who said the abortion business submitted “repeated false, fraudulent, and/or ineligible claims for reimbursements” to Medicaid.
SIGN THE PETITION! Congress Must Investigate Planned Parenthood for Selling Aborted Baby Parts
Alliance Defending Freedom, which is involved in Thayer’s lawsuit, said the case has not reached a final result.
A similar lawsuit alleging fraudulent billing to Medicaid by a Texas Planned Parenthood resulted in a $4.3 million settlement in 2013.
In the lawsuit, Karen Reynolds, who worked for the abortion business from 1999 to 2009, submitted company memos and emails to support her charge that the Texas Planned Parenthood had engaged in a system-wide scheme to bilk Medicaid, Title XX, and the Women’s Health Program of tens of millions of dollars over the course of at least a decade.
The expose’ videos catching Planned Parenthood officials selling the body parts of aborted babies have shocked the nation.
Here is a list of all twelve:
In the first video: Dr. Deborah Nucatola of Planned Parenthood commented on baby-crushing: “We’ve been very good at getting heart, lung, liver, because we know that, so I’m not gonna crush that part, I’m gonna basically crush below, I’m gonna crush above, and I’m gonna see if I can get it all intact.”
In the second video: Planned Parenthood’s Dr. Mary Gatter joked, “I want a Lamborghini” as she negotiated the best price for baby parts.
In the third video: Holly O’Donnell, a former Stem Express employee who worked inside a Planned Parenthood clinic, detailed first-hand the unspeakable atrocities and how she fainted in horror over handling baby legs.
In the fourth video: Planned Parenthood’s Dr. Savita Ginde stated, “We don’t want to do just a flat-fee (per baby) of like, $200. A per-item thing works a little better, just because we can see how much we can get out of it.” She also laughed while looking at a plate of fetal kidneys that were “good to go.”
In the fifth video: Melissa Farrell of Planned Parenthood-Gulf Coast in Houston boasted of Planned Parenthood’s skill in obtaining “intact fetal cadavers” and how her “research” department “contributes so much to the bottom line of our organization here, you know we’re one of the largest affiliates, our Research Department is the largest in the United States.”
In the sixth video: Holly O’Donnell described technicians taking fetal parts without patient consent: “There were times when they would just take what they wanted. And these mothers don’t know. And there’s no way they would know.”
In the seventh and perhaps most disturbing video: Holly O’Donnell described the harvesting, or “procurement,” of organs from a nearly intact late-term fetus aborted at Planned Parenthood Mar Monte’s Alameda clinic in San Jose, CA. “‘You want to see something kind of cool,’” O’Donnell says her supervisor asked her. “And she just taps the heart, and it starts beating. And I’m sitting here and I’m looking at this fetus, and its heart is beating, and I don’t know what to think.”
In the eighth video: StemExpress CEO Cate Dyer admits Planned Parenthood sells “a lot of” fully intact aborted babies.
The ninth video: catches a Planned Parenthood medical director discussing how the abortion company sells fully intact aborted babies — including one who “just fell out” of the womb.
The 10th video: catches the nation’s biggest abortion business selling specific body parts — including the heart, eyes and “gonads” of unborn babies. The video also shows the shocking ways in which Planned Parenthood officials admit that they are breaking federal law by selling aborted baby body parts for profit.
Unreleased Videos: Unreleased videos from CMP show Deb Vanderhei of Planned Parenthood caught on tape talking about how Planned Parenthood abortion business affiliates may “want to increase revenue [from selling baby parts] but we can’t stop them…” Another video has a woman talking about the “financial incentives” of selling aborted baby body parts.
The 11th video: catches a Texas Planned Parenthood abortionist planning to sell the intact heads of aborted babies for research. Amna Dermish is caught on tape describing an illegal partial-birth abortion procedure to terminate living, late-term unborn babies which she hopes will yield intact fetal heads for brain harvesting.
The 12th video in the series shows new footage of Jennefer Russo, medical director at Planned Parenthood in Orange County, California, describing to undercover investigators how her abortion business tries to harvest intact aborted babies’ bodies for a local for-profit biotech company and changes the abortion procedure to do so.
[Ertelt, May 5, 2016, Washington, DC, http://www.lifenews.com/2016/05/05/oklahoma-defunds-planned-parenthood-medicaid-agency-cancels-its-contracts/]
Kansas Permanently Defunds Planned Parenthood, Sends Money to [REAL] Health Clinics
Kansas defunded Planned Parenthood this week, and in doing so expanded access to healthcare for poor women. Kansas Senate Bill 436 reallocates money from the abortion provider to full-service healthcare clinics that serve women in need, but the abortion giant is crying foul.
Gov. Sam Brownback, who vowed to defund the abortion giant during a State of the State speech in January, made the following statement:
The time has come to finish the job. We must keep working to protect our most innocent Kansans, the unborn. Every year since I became governor we have enacted pro-life legislation. We have come a long way, but there is still work to be done.
Kathy Ostrowski, legislative director for Kansans for Life, the state chapter of National Right to Life, testified in March before the Senate Ways and Means Committee, saying:
The SB 436 concept is to prioritize tax-assistance for the economically disadvantaged to comprehensive care facilities: first to public safety-net clinics and hospitals, and then public facilities providing comprehensive care.
In fact, Kansans for Life notes that SB 436 simply “enacts, as permanent law, the ‘Huelskamp-Kinzer’ [a 2007 law] language prioritizing Title X federal reproductive health money to full-service public health clinics.
But Planned Parenthood is crying foul, because it cannot serve as a full service medical clinic. Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri President and CEO Laura McQuade said:
This is an outrageous attempt by Governor Brownback to punish the women and men who have freely chosen Planned Parenthood for their health care for decades. Denying Kansans on Medicaid access to Planned Parenthood services flies in the face of the clear federal guidance that protects the rights of patients to see their provider of choice.
McQuade states, not recognizing her irony, that “Brownback is using health care as a political football, and it’s Kansans who will pay the price if he’s not stopped.”
In reality, expanding comprehensive care to all Kansans is not a game; holding money hostage only for those who will visit a place focused on abortion is a defensive strategy that’s been exposed.
McQuade said, “This is not over. Our doors are open today, they’ll be open tomorrow, and we’ll fight this with everything we’ve got.”
However, Kansas has not closed its doors. Kansas is simply reallocating that $61,000 dollars. But Planned Parenthood has already filed a lawsuit against the state, proving once again that it will spend whatever amount of money to sue rather than simply use it to help women.
[May 4, 2016 Susan Michelle, http://liveactionnews.org/kansas-permanently-defunds-planned-parenthood-sends-money-to-health-clinics/ ]