In a unique way to respond to a Texas program for family planning, the Obama administration on December 12th used provisions in the Social Scurity Act to deny the state the right to shut down funding to Planned Parenthood, and run its own state program.
As it has in Indiana and New Hampshire, the Obama administration denied the request and, according to the Texas Tribune, Cindy Mann, director of the federal agency, wrote a letter to Texas officials today saying its request is a violation of the federal Social Security Act.
“We want to be very clear [that] Medicaid does not pay for abortions and will not pay for abortions,” Mann told the Tribune. “We indicated to the state today [that] their proposal violates the longstanding law.” – Lifenews.com
Instead of challenging the state on the Constitutionality of Federal funding to Planned Parenthood for abortions and other family planning programs, the White House used a loophole in the Social Security Act which forbade the use of Medicaid funds to perform such services. Since the state of Texas was in part using Federal medicaid funds to run their family planning program, this negates the state from being the arbiter of abortion funding to medical recipients unless they choose to do so without Federal assistance.
At the core of this, and other programs that run on Federal funding, is the issue of Federal mandates tied to government money. In some cases, mandates such as education requirements (No Child Left Behind) are intrinsically linked to how much a state or school district receives each year from the Federal government. Yet in other cases such as immigration, Washington can impose its political will over states without providing necessary funds to pay for those mandates. Forced care, welfare, and education costs states like California over $10.5 billion annually, which must come from their general fund and taxpayers, and not from Washington which fails to enforce current immigration laws.
Since Roe v. Wade, legal abortion has been the law of the land. However, since that time a great debate has been waged over who is to pay for those services, and do states have the right to control the process instead of the Federal government. President Obama's use of a Social Security Act provision to deny Federal funds for a program in Texas that does all the processes Planned Parenthood does, but with local controls, shows that the administration does not wish to challenge the rights of the states on federal funding for abortions should this issue make it into a Federal court.
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