Primary Department: County Attorney
Primary Department Head/Elected Official: Christian D. Menefee
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Type of Request: Financial Authorization
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Request Summary (Agenda Caption):
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Request by the County Attorney for approval of an order authorizing Harris County to file amicus briefing in Medina v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, et al. 23-1275 (U.S.).
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Background and Discussion:
The Governor of South Carolina issued an executive order directing the Department of Health and Human Services to terminate abortion clinics from the Medicaid program. As a result, DHHS informed Planned Parenthood that it was no longer qualified to provide services to Medicaid beneficiaries and terminated its enrollment agreements immediately. Planned Parenthood and Julie Edwards, a Medicaid beneficiary and Planned Parenthood patient, sued the Director of DHHS in federal court seeking to block enforcement of the executive order. The district court granted the preliminary injunction, the Fourth Circuit affirmed. Cert was granted 12/18/24. The issue in the case is whether the Medicaid Act's any-qualified-provider provision in 42 U.S.C. ? 1396a unambiguously confers a private right on a Medicaid beneficiary to choose a specific provider.
PRP is very interested in including Harris County's reproductive healthcare landscape in the amicus. The basic argument is that primary care and reproductive health care deserts will worsen and there will be more strain on public health departments if entit...
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