North Houston News

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is suing in federal court to get government funds back from Planned Parenthood, despite reports that the government funds were not used to perform abortions. Gubernatorial candidate Don Huffines supports Paxton's lawsuit as well. 

Paxton is going to federal court in an attempt to make Planned Parenthood give back $10 million in federal reimbursement for services for low-income patients. 

"It is right for Texas to seek to take back public funds from abortionists, but they should never have received any money in Texas period" Huffines told the North Houston News. "Politicians like Greg Abbott have allowed this evil practice to continue for too long. No matter what the federal government says, when I am governor I will outlaw abortion in Texas, with no exceptions."

By law, the payments were not used for abortions, instead they were used for cancer screenings, birth control and other health services according to the Associated Press. In 2015, Planned Parenthood was removed from Texas' Medicaid program. According to Forbes, Planned Parenthood's revenue is greater than $1.6 billion, with more than $600 million of that money coming from government financial aid. 

Planned Parenthood is currently the biggest provider of reproductive health services in the United States. According to Statista, between the 1973 Roe V. Wade Supreme Court ruling to legalize abortion in the United States and 2019, a minimum of 41.9 million abortions have been performed. In 2000, Statista reports that 857,000 abortions were carried out although the total declined to 630,000 in 2019.

Huffines is opposed to the legality of abortion. He says if he is elected, he will immediately attempt to ban abortion in the state of Texas.