DALLAS _ A federal appeals court issued a decision Thursday overturning a judge's 2017 ruling that Texas could not remove Planned Parenthood as a Medicaid provider.
U.S. District Court Judge Sam Sparks wrote in that ruling that the state had acted "without cause" in terminating the reproductive health care organization from the program that provides health care to low-income Americans.
But a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said that Sparks did not use the correct standard in making his decision. The case now returns to Sparks for further consideration.
The case involved an eight-hour, secretly recorded video released by the anti-abortion group Center for Medical Progress in which Planned Parenthood employees at an abortion clinic in Houston discussed the collection of fetal tissue for research projects.
Stuart Bowen, inspector general for the state's Health and Human Services Commission, said the footage showed that the group was willing to "violate generally accepted medical standards," and the state argued that Planned Parenthood was breaking the law by offering to acquire specific amounts of fetal tissue by altering abortion procedures.
Planned Parenthood officials denied accusations that the group sold fetal tissue, and Melissa Farrell, an employee in the recording, testified that she was discussing modifying how the clinic handled tissue after an abortion.
Sparks' decision called the footage "unauthenticated" and said that if offered, "at most, theoretical conversations concerning what might be possible in a research partnership between a health care provider and a tissue procurement company."
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton applauded Thursday's decision.
"The 5th Circuit's ruling shows that the district court applied the wrong legal standard," Paxton said in a written statement. "Planned Parenthood's reprehensible conduct, captured in undercover videos, proves that it is not a 'qualified' provider under the Medicaid Act, so we are confident we will ultimately prevail."
Planned Parenthood did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment. The group, which said it served about 85,000 Texas patients in 2016, receives about $3.1 million annually in Medicaid funding, according to the attorney general's office.
