Planned Parenthood May Have to Pay $1.8 Billion to Texas and Louisiana in Fraudulent Medicaid Claims

Planned Parenthood will potentially have to pay $1.8 billion to Texas and Louisiana, after the abortion-oriented nonprofit continued to collect Medicaid dollars in both states, while litigation was pending on whether Planned Parenthood was an eligible provider.

The case, U.S. ex rel. Doe v. Planned Parenthood, went before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans on Thursday morning for oral arguments.

In 2015, Planned Parenthood was exposed for selling aborted fetal body parts and tissues for profit when a secretly recorded video of employees discussing the process was released to the public.  Following the uncovering of Planned Parenthood’s previously undisclosed activities, Texas and Louisiana, among other states, terminated Planned Parenthood’s eligible-provider status under their state Medicaid programs.

Planned Parenthood promptly filed its own lawsuit against Texas and Louisiana in 2016, initially receiving support from lower level courts. In 2020, however, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled in favor of Texas and Louisiana’s decision to bar Planned Parenthood from collecting from their Medicaid programs.

From Planned Parenthood’s initial filing in 2016 to the appellate court’s decision in 2020, Planned Parenthood continued to operate and file Medicaid claims in both states, even though its status was uncertain.

Filed in 2021, the case at hand is a false claims suit, in which an individual sues on behalf of the government to retrieve money lost in some sort of fraud, often associated with Medicaid or Medicare. If Planned Parenthood loses, the organization will be on the hook for the $1.8 billion collected while its Medicaid status was under review, a massive financial blow to the nonprofit, especially after the Trump administration’s crusade to defund the abortion group.

Planned Parenthood has faced a plethora of issues with federal funding in Trump’s second term. After the president signed the “Big, Beautiful Bill,” Planned Parenthood was essentially defunded, cutting tens of million of dollars from the nation’s largest abortion center.

Dozens of Planned Parenthood clinics have shut down citing financial issues, including the nonprofit’s flagship location in Manhattan, as well as locations in Michigan, Minnesota, and Utah; there have been more than 40 closures in total.

Other Planned Parenthood locations, in Washington, D.C., and Colorado for example, have stopped accepting patrons with Medicaid since the passage of the “Big, Beautiful Bill.”

“This is massive news for the pro-life movement and shows the direction that Planned Parenthood is going, which is down,” Shawn Carney, 40 Days for Life CEO and founder, told Fox News regarding the closure of the Manhattan Planned Parenthood location.

While Planned Parenthood claims that its exclusion from Medicaid “means that over 1.1 million patients could now lose access to birth control, wellness visits, STI tests, cancer screenings,” National Review recently reported on a new study showing that alternative health-care providers are more than prepared to fill the gap. In reality, 96.9 percent of Planned Parenthood’s pregnancy resolution services were abortions, not the services many other clinics offer, such as counseling, adoption information, or prenatal care.

Planned Parenthood, in the last year alone, performed more than 400,000 abortions, according to a report from the Charlotte Lozier Institute.

Further, much of the group’s funding is dedicated to causes unrelated to women’s health, including $69.5 million spent on the 2024 election cycle and significant salary increases for Planned Parenthood executives, with its CEOs earning three times the average nonprofit CEO salary.

Pending a decision from the appellate court, Planned Parenthood may be forced to pay back every cent collected over that four-year period.

Planned Parenthood did not respond to National Review‘s request for comment at the time of publication.