* Decision reverses lower court ruling Monday
* Planned Parenthood not eligible provider- Texas official (Adds comment from state, background, details)
By Corrie MacLaggan
AUSTIN, Texas, May 1 (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court ruled on Tuesday that the state of Texas can exclude Planned Parenthood from a state health program for low-income women because the organization performs abortions.
The ruling, by Judge Jerry Smith of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, reversed a lower court ruling Monday in favor of the family planning organization. The decision on Tuesday means the state is free for now to enforce a new rule banning Pla n ned Parenthood from the Women's Health Program, Texas officials said.
"At this point, Planned Parenthood is not an eligible provider in the Women's Health Program," Stephanie Goodman, a spokeswoman for the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, said on Tuesday.
The Women's Health Program, which is part of the federal-state Medicaid program, provides cancer screenings, birth control and other health services to more than 100,000 low-income women.
It does not pay for abortions or allow abortion providers to participate in the program. The new state rule bans program money from going to affiliates of abortion providers. State law has included that ban on affiliates since the program began in 2007, but the state did not enforce it.
On Monday, U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel temporarily blocked the state rule, citing "the potential for immediate loss of access to necessary medical services by several thousand Texas women."
Planned Parenthood had told Yeakel that the health care of 40,000 women would be disrupted unless he blocked the rule.
But lawyers for the state said that Planned Parenthood's mission was contrary to a program goal of reducing abortions and that the program would end if Planned Parenthood remains in it.
Texas notified the federal government last year of its intent to begin enforcing the ban, effectively excluding Planned Parenthood from the program.
President Barack Obama's administration has said it will not renew funding for the Texas program because the state was violating federal law by restricting the freedom to choose providers.
The state is suing over that decision. The federal government pays 90 percent of the $33-million-a-year program. (Reporting by Corrie MacLaggan; Editing by Greg McCune and Doina Chiacu)
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