State health officials visit Planned Parenthood clinics

Texas health officials raided several Planned Parenthood facilities Thursday.

This comes just a few days after state leaders cut off Medicaid funding to the organization.

The Office of Inspector General officials visited a select number of Texas Planned Parenthood facilities.  The agency is not saying why yet, but Planned Parenthood is not happy about it.

“The level of detail they're asking for in relation to the auditors of the inspector general showing up today is unprecedented,” Ken Lambrecht, President of Planned Parenthood of Central Texas, said.

Lambrecht says the state is asking the clinics to provide thousands of pages of documents within 24 hours. The raids come just days after the state says they'll no longer allow the clinic to accept Medicaid.

“Our governor wants to restrict access of women to Planned Parenthood and their provider of choice,” he said.

This also happens after a recent government probe, investigating controversial videos that surfaced over the summer. Lambrecht believes the clinic is being targeted for numerous reasons.

“The state is on a fishing expedition trying to find any wrong and we assure the public is that we follow the interpretation of every law,” he said.

Planned Parenthood says Austin was pretty quiet with no raids. However, there was a pro-life group outside of the Austin main office.

“We want abortion clinics to be shut down here in Texas,” Nichola Morrison, Central Texas Coalition for Life, said.

“The documents requested are so over-stepping that they even include the home addresses of our employees,” Lambrecht said.

Although they don't agree with what the state is doing, Planned Parenthood says they will comply.

“We believe all of this is politics at its worst,” Lambrecht said.

The Office of Inspector General declined to comment at this time because they are in the middle of the investigation.