Justice Department plans to join Texas Planned Parenthood fraud case

The Department of Justice (DOJ) told a federal court it plans to ask to intervene in Texas’s Medicaid fraud lawsuit against Planned Parenthood by Nov. 13, days after voters elected a Democrat to succeed Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton, who brought Texas into the case.

The plan appears in a joint status report filed Nov. 6, after the court lifted a stay in the case. Planned Parenthood reserved the right to oppose intervention, and the department said it does not intend to file a separate complaint. 

Democratic Attorney General-elect Nathan Johnson, who takes office in January, said Nov. 8 that he is reviewing the action closely and will take appropriate action in the interests of the state. He has not said how he will handle the case. Johnson has also pledged to end Paxton’s practice of suing out-of-state doctors who mail abortion pills into Texas, potentially conflicting with the state’s pro-life laws. 

Texas bans nearly all abortions, allowing an exception only when a physician determines a pregnancy threatens the mother’s life or risks serious impairment of a major bodily function. It enforces the ban through both state penalties and private lawsuits, including under a 2025 law that allows any person to sue someone who provides abortion pills to a mother.

Paxton, who was not running for re-election as attorney general, lost the Nov. 3 U.S. Senate race to Democrat James Talarico, a result Zeale News described as one of the night’s most surprising. Paxton had won the Republican nomination by defeating Sen. John Cornyn in a May 26 runoff.

An anonymous plaintiff filed the suit against Planned Parenthood in 2021 under the federal False Claims Act, and Texas joined in 2022. It alleges that Planned Parenthood intentionally kept billing and collecting Medicaid payments from Texas and Louisiana after those states moved to cut off its funding and did not repay the money once the terminations took effect, Reuters reported. 

Planned Parenthood says its billing was legal while courts had paused the terminations and that it cannot be held liable for legal advice it gave affiliates. It has said it would have to shut down in Texas if it loses.

Texas is seeking more than $1.8 billion in reimbursement, penalties, and fees in a case involving more than $10 million in Medicaid payments. U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk is presiding, and the parties jointly proposed in the status report that a seven-day trial begin April 13, 2027.

The anonymous plaintiff and the DOJ said in the report that Texas has no remaining claims against the national federation, and that the plaintiff keeps the right to continue as a party even if the court allows the department to intervene.

The full 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously dismissed Planned Parenthood’s appeal Aug. 12, ruling that it lacked jurisdiction to hear an early challenge to a 2023 decision denying the organization attorney immunity. 

The court had heard arguments Sept. 25, 2025. The district court stayed the case in January 2024, and the status report says it ruled in October 2023 that three Planned Parenthood affiliates had a legal obligation to return Medicaid overpayments they received.