The budget bill passed by the House, if it should survive conference committee, is actually unlikely to eliminate Planned Parenthood in Texas (if that is its unstated intention). What it would do is make it difficult for Planned Parenthood clinics to serve those clients most in need – ensuring little or no access to health care for the majority of Texas’ low-income and uninsured women for the next two years. That’s just one of the many realities hidden in that $62 million. Cuts to family-planning funds will also:
• Increase the number of serious illnesses – such as cervical and breast cancers as well as STIs – diagnosed at more critical and costlier stages of illness
• Reduce birth spacing, posing increased health risks to mother and baby
• Increase the number of abortions
• Increase Medicaid costs
• Shift state money to less efficient providers (public providers spend $219 per client; federally qualified health centers spend $225; Planned Parenthood spends only $168)
• Leave displaced clients with inadequate alternatives (e.g., overwhelmed FQHCs already routinely return state money for reallocation)
The cuts will also drastically reduce access to the following preventative health care services:
• Annual gynecological exams
• Birth control
• Testing for hypertension, anemia, tuberculosis, and diabetes
• Screening for breast and cervical cancers
• Screening for sexually transmitted infections, such as HIV/AIDS
• Counseling for pregnancy planning
• Reproductive health education
• Midlife and post-menopausal care
• Colposcopy and cryotherapy
• Prenatal care
• Infertility services
This article appears in April 22 • 2011.