AUSTIN — A new bipartisan group will try to sway the state and ensure the restoration of family planning funding to the state preventive health care program.
The Texas Women’s Healthcare Coalition, with the help of representatives Jessica Farrar, D-Houston; Donna Howard, D-Austin; Sarah Davis, R-Houston; and Justin Rodriguez, D-San Antonio, intends to urge the Legislature to restore funding.
Rep. Donna Howard, D-Austin, addresses the press for the Texas Women's Healthcare Coalition. From left to right: Ana Li Cantu, Dr. Janet Realini, Howard, Rep. Sarah Davis, R-Houston.
The 2011 Legislature cut about $73.6 million out of the $111.5 million family planning budget for 2012-13 biennium, resulting in the loss of funding for about 147,000 Texans and more than 180 clinics, and the closure of more than 50 clinics.
“This is not about abortion, this is about prevention,” said Dr. Janet Realini, chair of the coalition’s steering committee.
The state family planning program is managed by the Department of State Health Services and funded through federal Title X dollars. The funding goes to clinics that provide low-income patients with STD testing and treatment, contraception, well-women exams and cancer screening exams.
Ana Vi Cantu, a mother of three living in South Texas and working while attending school, teared up at the Wednesday news conference saying her family planning clinic used to be open five days a week and now only stays open three days making it harder for her to get care.
Cantu, 29, said she and her husband both relied on the clinic for contraceptives because they cannot afford to have another child. Cantu’s clinic reduced hours after funding was cut.
Without the funding, Jose E. Camacho, executive director and general counsel for the Texas Association of Community Health Centers, said the state will pay $136 million in 2013-15 for maternal and infant care because of a lack of accessible family planning and increased Medicaid caseloads.
Davis said the time has come to ensure the state has enough providers for the new Texas Women’s Health Program and enough funding for family planning.
“We need to hold the department accountable for funding providers,” Davis said. “It is no longer the time to play politics with women’s health.”
Davis said she is more optimistic this session than last, when funding for family planning was cut and the state passed an abortion affiliate ban that ruled out Planned Parenthood.
The state took on the task of funding the Texas Women’s Health Program, a separate program managed by the Department of Health and Human Services, after the federal government withdrew Medicaid support because Planned Parenthood was blocked as an approved provider.
“From talking with our colleagues on the House floor, I am encouraged by the response that we’re getting that even those who had an ideological reason for wanting the cuts recognize it went beyond what some of them had anticipated,” Howard said. “This really devastated the safety net system.”
The Coalition is made up of 32 health care, public policy and faith-based organizations including the Texas Medical Association and Methodist Healthcare Ministries.