Center Typifies New Face of Pregnancy Services →

A reminder: Rick Perry, the newest contender for the Republican presidential ticket, has been governor of Texas for nearly a decade.  This kind of anti-choice shit is part and parcel of his ongoing drive to - what appears to be - ruin this state.

Nearly 180,000 Texas women and men are likely to lose access to birth control and preventative examinations next month because the Legislature recently slashed financing for family planning services by two-thirds.

But socially conservative lawmakers succeeded in their efforts to increase money for a small state program, Alternatives to Abortion Services, more ideologically aligned with their politics. Lawmakers added $300,000 to the program’s budget for each of the coming two fiscal years, bringing it to $8.3 million for 2012 and for 2013. […]

State Representative Sid Miller, Republican of Stephenville, agrees. He voted with other lawmakers to cut financing for family planning for the next two years to $37.9 million from $111.5 million, calling it a “direct attack” on Planned Parenthood, which has been the second-largest recipient of such money. Planned Parenthood has legally separated its nonabortion health clinics so it can receive state aid. No taxpayer money is used to finance abortions.

“I think we’re trying to shut down abortions in Texas, and doing that through cutting off the purse strings,” Mr. Miller said.

The interim chief executive of Planned Parenthood of the Texas Capital Region, Sarah Wheat, noted that her agency’s offerings went well beyond abortion and included such medical services as prenatal care, access to birth control, Pap smears and screenings for sexually transmitted diseases, diabetes and cervical and breast cancer.

“This is basic women’s health care that has been funded for generations,” Ms. Wheat said, “and one of the reasons it’s been funded is because it works.”

1 year ago  /  34 notes  /