Life Legal filed a lawsuit last week on behalf of The Heidi Group, Inc., a pro-life pregnancy center network. The suit targets two Texas agencies and several individuals for violations of constitutional and statutory rights and conspiracy.
The Heidi Group was founded by former abortionist Carol Everett, who has been instrumental in defunding Planned Parenthood in Texas. Carol and The Heidi Group are represented by Life Legal affiliated attorney Ed Watt.
In 2016, The Heidi Group was invited to apply for state funding through two new programs to provide abortion-free women’s health services. The program redirected funding that would otherwise have gone to Planned Parenthood and other abortionists. Pro-abortion deep state bureaucrats within the Health and Human Services Commission – the largest of Texas’s bureaucracies – discerned an opportunity to strike back at the State’s defunding of Planned Parenthood. They schemed to make sure Carol and The Heidi Group – believed to be the only pro-life organization participating in the programs – failed.
Although Texas is generally recognized as a pro-life state, the lawsuit alleges that these deep-state bureaucrats sought to thwart the will of the legislature and elected officials by discriminating against Carol and The Heidi Group because of their pro-life religious beliefs. According to the lawsuit, the defendants colluded with a former employee of Heidi to access information and documents in Heidi’s computers and computer systems without authorization and in violation of Texas and federal laws against such computer intrusions.
The lawsuit further alleges that state officials violated The Heidi Group’s constitutional and statutory rights by singling out the organization for disparate treatment. Preliminary reports and statements by various defendants implied fraud on the part of The Heidi Group, resulting in the immediate termination of its contracts for the provision of health services to indigent women. These statements have since been thoroughly refuted through a final audit issued by the Office the of Inspector General of HHSC, but The Heidi Group’s contracts have not yet been reinstated. The result is that Carol has had to curtail her services – which was the ultimate goal of the deep-state ideologues behind the scheme. They could not bear the idea of a viable threat to Planned Parenthood’s abortion-centric model.
The abuse endured by Carol Everett at the hands of certain state bureaucrats demonstrates once again that pro-aborts are not about choice or health care. They will do anything, including eliminating women’s health care options, in order to protect their ideology and market share.
Carol Everett is a businesswoman who began her career in the abortion industry and operated several lucrative abortion clinics in Dallas. When she became a Christian, she knew she could no longer profit from the killing of innocent children and dedicated her life to ending abortion.
Please pray for Life Legal attorneys involved in this case and for Carol and the staff of The Heidi Group. Since the enactment of Texas’ Heartbeat Act, which prohibits abortion after a baby’s heartbeat can be detected, The Heidi Group has seen an increase of over 50% in the number of women and girls seeking their services.