Planned Parenthood may be on the hook for nearly $2 billion after a federal appeals court allowed a lawsuit accusing the organization of Medicaid fraud to move forward.

A full panel of judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit heard oral arguments on the case focused on Planned Parenthood’s use of Medicaid funds in Texas and Louisiana.

“Planned Parenthood is facing a repayment obligation of close to $2 billion because it continued to fill its coffers with taxpayers’ money even after two states had already disqualified it,” Jennie Bradley Lichter, president of March for Life, told Fox News Digital.

“If that obligation stands, it will strike a serious — even existential — blow to Planned Parenthood’s national operations and potentially change the abortion landscape in this country forever,” Lichter continued.

Fox News shared further:

The case comes after Texas and Louisiana stripped Planned Parenthood affiliates of their Medicaid qualifications in response to activist David Daleiden releasing video footage showing Planned Parenthood staff discussing selling aborted fetal tissue.

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Daleiden faced a lawsuit and prosecution for illegally recording the staff, but his footage set off a firestorm in the pro-life movement and caused it to ramp up its efforts to weaken the nonprofit.

Planned Parenthood, however, sued Texas and Louisiana and initially won an injunction that allowed it to keep receiving the Medicaid reimbursements. But the decision was reversed on appeal years later.

An anonymous litigant then brought a new lawsuit on behalf of the two states seeking to claw back the millions of dollars Planned Parenthood had collected while the injunction had been in place.

Court papers indicate that the potential money Planned Parenthood could now owe — reimbursement of the Medicaid dollars it collected plus various multipliers — could add up to $1.8 billion. The exact dollar amount would be determined by a jury in the lower court.

The key issue at hand is whether Planned Parenthood had immunity when it collected the Medicaid dollars.

“Planned Parenthood has argued it has immunity because its counsel advised it to collect the payments during the injunction period,” Fox News stated.

“Judges Elrod and Graves did not decide whether Planned Parenthood is protected by attorney immunity, ruling instead that the issue cannot be appealed yet because the claimed immunity would not shield Planned Parenthood from the entire lawsuit or prevent it from going to trial,” SCOTUS Wire wrote.

“The court also wipes away a 2025 panel ruling that sided with Planned Parenthood and held it was protected by attorney immunity for the actions of its lawyers. The full court had previously voted to rehear the case, leading to today’s ruling,” it added.

Bloomberg Law has more:

A three-judge appellate panel initially dismissed claims related to actions taken by Planned Parenthood’s attorney-employees, ruling that they have “absolute immunity” from Doe’s claims under federal common law. But the full Fifth Circuit, after vacating that ruling and taking up the case en banc, ruled Wednesday that the court can’t consider the organization’s appeal at this point in the case.

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The en banc opinion rejected Planned Parenthood’s argument that the court could consider the attorney immunity issue under the collateral-order doctrine, a legal principal that allows immediate appeals of interim rulings in certain instances. That doctrine doesn’t apply in this case because “resolving the immunity question would not conclusively determine a separable legal issue in a way that meaningfully advances the litigation,” the en banc court wrote.

In addition, neither Texas or Louisiana state law provide a basis for the Fifth Circuit jurisdiction in the case, according to the opinion.

The lower court ruling at issue was authored by Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, a Trump appointee.

 

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