Point Austin: The Lege Provides

For a couple of years, Chronicle staff writer Jordan Smith has been following the curious story of the "alternatives to abortion" programs authored by the Legislature and underwritten by Texas taxpayers. Predictably, as Smith reported most recently on Jan. 26 ("No Real Alternative"), the programs have now begun to siphon state money from effective family-planning and women's-health-care programs into anti-abortion counseling efforts marketed as "crisis pregnancy centers." Note well that contradiction, which has literally nothing to do with abortion: Funding for comprehensive health care is being diverted to feel-good counseling (without pretense of medical services) promoting childbirth.

Smith's diligent reporting has had an effect at the Capitol, where House Appropriations Committee members, most prominently Austin Democrat Dawnna Dukes, questioned sharply the misuse of health-care money to fund counseling programs and expensive, barely operational programs at that. The Houston Chronicle and the Los Angeles Times picked up the story, and, stung by public exposure, the "alternatives" advocates at the Texas Pregnancy Care Network – who now, as then, dodge Smith's inquiries – attempted a stealth strike-back campaign about as effective as the rest of their work. (See "TPCN Flack Attack," next page.)

In their franker moments, the "alternatives" crowd admits that it's not all that interested in women's health care. Their true intent is to find ways to "defund" health-care providers that also provide abortion services – albeit not with forbidden tax funds. Their primary target is Planned Parenthood. ("Everyone knows this is a debate over Planned Parenthood and pregnancy resource centers," Georgetown Republican Dan Gattis told the Statesman.) In that regard, they can congratulate themselves – while they were spending hundreds of thousands of dollars (and anticipating millions) to encourage a few hundred Texas women to give birth, they "saved" thousands of other women (mostly uninsured or underinsured) from professional health care at the hands of medical providers who believe women are adults who can make their own choices.

The Los Angeles Times reported the effect of these and related legislative funding cuts, just in Austin: "To deal with its 62 percent budget cut, the Planned Parenthood clinic in downtown Austin began charging for services long offered free to low-income women. Since the fees took effect, the clinic has distributed 40 percent fewer birth control pills and has conducted 50 percent fewer Pap smears to screen for cervical cancer. Several thousand patients have stopped coming."

Rep. Gattis and his colleagues should be proud.

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For more on the Texas Pregnancy Care Network and its defenders, see austinchronicle.com.