Primary Department: County Attorney
Primary Department Head/Elected Official: Christian D. Menefee
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Regular or Supplemental RCA: Supplemental RCA
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 entities like Planned Parenthood cannot serve Medicaid beneficiaries.
Reproductive healthcare can be difficult to access in Harris County. The County has only 63 reproductive health care centers serving people eligible for publicly funded contraception that provide a full range of reproductive healthcare services. <https://powertodecide.org/what-we-do/contraceptive-deserts>. Texas terminated Planned Parenthood's status as a Medicaid provider in 2021. <https://www.texastribune.org/2021/03/10/planned-parenthood-medicaid-texas/>. And Texas has sued Planned Parenthood for Medicaid fraud for $1.8B in an attempt to bankrupt it. <https://www.texastribune.org/2023/08/15/texas-abortion-planned-parenthood-lawsuit/>.
Harris County Public Health operates the Reproductive Health Access Fund (“RHAF”), which is funded through ARPA to provide funding to existing under resourced health clinics to increase capacity for reproductive healthcare services and expand their service delivery within priority zip codes. And provide funding for grassroots organizations to educate, promote, and connect people to reproductive healthcare services within their community. <https://publichealth.harriscountytx.gov/Divisions-Offices/Divisions/Community-Health-Wellness-Division/American-Rescue-Plan-Act/Reproductive-Health-Access-Fund-RHAF>. RHAF was created in response to the reproductive healthcare crisis caused by Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
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Additional notes related to the Strategic Plan:
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Anticipated Court Date: 2/27/2025
Anticipated Implementation Date (if different from Court date): 2/27/2025
Emergency/Disaster Recovery Note: Not an emergency, disaster, or COVID-19 related item
Contact(s) name, title, department: Andrea Mintzer, Executive Assistant, Office of the County Attorney Christian D. Menefee
Attachments (if applicable): N/A