Texas GOP Takes Drastic Measures To Defund Planned Parenthood

[Derechos]

WASHINGTON -- In an attempt to defund Planned Parenthood without breaking any federal rules, Texas lawmakers passed two measures this month that will decimate the state's family planning program and result in nearly 300,000 women losing access to cancer and diabetes screenings.

In early June, Rick Perry, Texas' Republican governor, signed a budget bill that reduced the state's family planning funding from $111 million to just $37 million. Then on Monday, state lawmakers passed a measure that forces the Texas Health Department to dole out the remaining funds using a tiered priority system, in which Planned Parenthood is at the very bottom.

"It doesn't completely defund us, but it puts the agency in a position where they have to put us third in line for the money," said Yvonne Gutierrez, a spokesperson for Planned Parenthood of South Texas. "And it's not only us that's in the third tier -- it's all the traditional family planning providers that don't provide comprehensive care, many in rural areas. So it's the hard to reach population that's really being affected by this."

Texas Planned Parenthood offices have two avenues through which they receive state and federal money: the Women's Health Program (WHP), which is funded by Medicaid, and the state family planning program, which is funded by the Title X federal grant program. In addition to putting private providers like Planned Parenthood last in line for Title X funds, GOP lawmakers inserted language into the new Medicaid bill that will prevent WHP money from going to any entity that provides abortions or is affiliated with an abortion provider.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/28/texas-gop-defund-planned-parenthood_n_886227.html

[LetTimmySmoke]

1. Here come the jobs.

[ceile]

2. I am getting so sick of this shit.

I love TX, but it's one thing after another: education, medicaid, redistricting- all with women and children at the bottom.

[Fleshdancer]

3. and in time there will be a rise of disease, cancer caught too late, and unsafe abortions.

but hey, when the fanatics think of Planned Parenthood, they ONLY think about abortion. Not the pap smears, the birth control, the breast exams, the venereal disease tests, the prescriptions, or the education and the compassion.

Yes, this is a war on women.

[WCGreen]

4. Totally agree...

And why any self respecting woman would vote for a republican is beyond me...

[Ilsa]

6. We can only hope enough GOP men catch some STDs to see the error

of their ways. They are bound to catch them at their conventions.

[louis-t]

5. Jeez, I read it as "defend" at first.

Almost choked on my sandwich. Gotta get new glasses.