A conservative legal organization worked with the Trump administration to make it easier for states to defund Planned Parenthood, according to documents obtained by congressional Democrats and shared with POLITICO.
HHS last month told states they no longer have to comply with Obama administration policy that made it difficult for states to exclude the women’s health group from their Medicaid programs — an announcement timed to the March of Life anti-abortion rally. HHS received a draft legal analysis from the conservative Alliance Defending Freedom a week before the announcement, according to House Oversight Committee ranking Democrat Elijah Cummings.
Cummings cited a whistle-blower who shared emails and documents.
“The documents provided by the whistle-blower raise serious concerns about whether the Trump administration is now taking orders from an extreme right-wing interest group that is trying to deny American citizens the ability to exercise their right to obtain family planning services from the provider of their choice, which is guaranteed by federal statute,” Cummings wrote in a letter to HHS Monday.
The Alliance defended its work, calling Cummings’ allegations “misleading and inaccurate.”
“It is common practice for constitutional attorneys to be consulted regarding constitutional matters,” the organization said in a statement. “What should also be common practice is refusing to award Americans’ hard earned tax dollars to scandal-ridden Medicaid providers. HHS’ recent guidance brings the agency back into conformity with decades of federal court precedent and empowers state legislatures to allocate Medicaid funding to women’s health providers not entangled in alleged fraud and abuse.”
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