Opinion

Texas, Planned Parenthood keep fighting

AUSTIN — Texas' health and human services commissioner says the state may get a boost in its fight to exclude Planned Parenthood from a key women's program, courtesy of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision on health care reform.

The federal government has said it will end funding for the Medicaid Women's Health Program in Texas because the state banned clinics affiliated with abortion providers, even if the clinics themselves don't provide abortions.

The state's also being sued by Planned Parenthood, which won a court stay of the ban while it pursues its case.

But Executive Commissioner Tom Suehs of the Texas Health and Human Services Commission recently told lawmakers the Supreme Court ruling that upheld the federal health care law may work in the state's favor in the Planned Parenthood case.

That's because the court said states can't be penalized with the loss of traditional Medicaid funding for failing to expand the Medicaid program to cover more low-income people. Gov. Rick Perry has said Texas won't expand Medicaid.

“We believe it may help us with our position on the Women's Health Program. We don't think that the threat of the feds withholding federal money would hold up,” Suehs said at a recent budget hearing. “I think the ruling by the Supreme Court helps the state of Texas' position.”

Commission spokeswoman Stephanie Goodman said last week that the Supreme Court “said the federal government can't coerce a state into a particular policy decision. But that's what Washington has tried to do in requiring states to include abortion providers in their Medicaid programs.”

Planned Parenthood sees it differently.

Rochelle Tafolla of Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast said Texas is losing federal money for the Women's Health Program because it is trying to spend the money in a way that is not allowed. “There really isn't any connection there,” she said.

Tafolla does see a common thread in Texas' decisions on Medicaid expansion and the Women's Health Program: “Why would the state deny low-income people vital health care services, especially when the federal government is going to provide the bulk of the funding?”

The federal government has paid 90 percent of the funding for the Women's Health Program. If Texas expanded Medicaid, the federal government would initially pay 100 percent of the expansion. The state would eventually pay 10 percent.

Jeffrey Hons, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Trust of South Texas, said Suehs' position “seems like an insupportable leap.”

“These people on the payroll of Texas will go to all these lengths ... to stop health care coverage, access and availability,” he said. “Once again, circuitous logic to show how we don't have to help anyone.”

What He Said Was…

Gov. Rick Perry caused some consternation when he was asked whether Mitt Romney should release more of his tax returns.

Perry's answer: “I'm a big believer that no matter who you are, or what office you're running for, you should be as transparent as you can be with your tax returns and other aspects of your life so that people have the appropriate ability to judge your background and what have you. I certainly think it is inappropriate for the president of the United States to not keep his college transcript and his law school transcripts public, that he should make those available. I'm all about transparency.”

In response to a follow up question, Perry said, “I think the president ought to release all of his transcripts, yes sir. I think anyone running for office, if they get asked within reason to give people background about what they have been doing, including tax returns, should do that. That's my deal on it.”

Two news organizations initially reported that Perry had said Romney should release returns. Two reported that he stopped short of calling on Romney to take action. Perry's aides agreed with the latter interpretation (We had simply posted what he was asked, and what he answered, without characterizing it).

But when an officeholder gives that kind of answer, should he be surprised when there are varying interpretations?

Sadler's World

First, Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate Paul Sadler proposed that Texans of all political stripes give him $10 apiece in the interest of a fair fight with whichever Republican gets his party's nod for the post — Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst or Ted Cruz (Sadler faces Grady Yarbrough in his party's runoff first).

Utopianism, said one Democratic consultant.

Now Sadler is calling for civility in political discourse. He told an education conference that the matter was brought home to him in a personal way when he reached out to shake the hand of a woman who was with her son. She looked up at the Democratic banner behind him and said, “‘Communist,'” he said.“You know what the tragedy was? That child walking behind her laughed,” he said. “If we speak hatred long enough, and if we talk ugly to each other long enough, children listen, and they learn.”

pfikac@express-news.net

Twitter: @pfikac