TEXAS AFL-CIO STANDS IN SOLIDARITY WITH PLANNED PARENTHOOD IN MEDICAID CASE

  As supporters of decent health care for all Americans, the Texas AFL-CIO stands in solidarity with Planned Parenthood as it makes its case in a federal courthouse for continued Medicaid funding, Texas AFL-CIO President John Patrick said.

  “Congress may be about to take away or compromise health coverage for tens of millions of Americans,” Patrick said. “The last thing Texans need in this environment is for Gov. Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton to cut off an organization that makes a dramatic difference in the health of thousands of the poorest people in our state.”

  “As with the coming drive to ‘repeal and replace,’ we were seriously skeptical that the vacuum of coverage created when Planned Parenthood was barred from Medicaid would ever be filled,” Patrick said. “That has proven to be the case. We cannot return to an era in which 11,000 more Texas women a year have no access to preventive care. Texas cannot afford a march backward on health coverage.”