Wrong-Headed Decimation of Family Planning
Author:
Anne Dunkelberg /(512) 320-0222 x 102
May 24, 2011
Read Full Article >>
Access to birth control for low-income Texas women will be critically wounded under the conference committee proposed budget, collateral damage in battles over abortion. Contraceptive services—not abortion—will be gutted in the state budget on two fronts. Like all states, Texas funds family planning through federal block grants and through Medicaid coverage. It should be noted that these programs provide not only birth control, but also preventive care and basic check-ups to low-income and largely uninsured women (one-third of Texas working age adults are uninsured). Sadly, the Texas legislature now proposes to profoundly undermine both areas of birth control access (again, not abortion services, which are not covered under either funding source, or funded in any way through our state budget). As proposed, these budget actions will cause over 400,000 Texas women to lose family planning and basic health services.