Governor Rick Perry recently released the 2012-2013 biennial state budget and slashed family planning programs from $11 million to $38 million. These family planning programs are then organized into a tier system of priority with Planned Parenthood at the bottom. The results of such cuts could have devastating effects on our state as many women will be losing pertinent health care and screenings, also with out access to birth control our population will increase; putting more burden on taxpayers.
While slashing budgets and raising revenues are a necessary part of the balancing of the state budget it seems that perhaps the Texas legislation and Governor Rick Perry haven't quite thought this through. This plan to "defund" Planned Parenthood seems to be more of an attack, yet another way to try to legally rid Texas of abortion clinics albeit clients receiving abortions from Planned Parenthood are self paying.
- According to the Legislative Budget Board (LBB), the Legislature’s actions will result in nearly 300,000 Texas women losing basic, life-saving healthcare, including screenings for breast and cervical cancer, and screenings for hypertension and diabetes. The same report says the cuts will result in 20,000 more unplanned births – at a taxpayer cost of $231 million.
“These attacks on family planning are shortsighted, mean-spirited and make no sense from any viewpoint,” said Jeffrey Hons, President and CEO of Planned Parenthood Trust of South Texas. “The result is all bad — more abortions, and more families who will look to government for public assistance. There is nothing smart here. This is bad politics winning over wise policy.”- This information was collected from the Planned Parenthood site.
-Texas Planned Parenthood offices have two avenues through which they receive state and federal money: the Women's Health Program (WHP), which is funded by Medicaid, and the state family planning program, which is funded by the Title X federal grant program. In addition to putting private providers like Planned Parenthood last in line for Title X funds, GOP lawmakers inserted language into the new Medicaid bill that will prevent WHP money from going to any entity that provides abortions or is affiliated with an abortion provider.
Because Planned Parenthood corporately separated its abortion services from its family planning services in 2005, every abortion it performs in Texas is paid for privately by the patient. But the Health Department will now have to define the word "affiliate" to determine whether Planned Parenthood's abortion and family planning services are closely related enough to disqualify it from state Medicaid funding.-Huffington Post
It is important to remember that the argue here isn't about whether or not one agrees with abortion, rather the necessity of family planning programs. With the state of Texas trying to defund Planned Parenthood that leaves taxpayers to fund more social programs as birthrates increase and women seek medical care that could have been prevented through family planning programs such as the Planned Parenthood.
In my classmates web blog, A Bird's Eye View, she talks about the recent budget cuts and where the Texas government decided to cut from. In her article, Texas Cuts Family Planning Programs, she talks about how in the 2012-2013 biennial state budget the government cut family planning programs from $11 billion to $38 million. She believes that the cuts they made will have a detrimental affect on the state and I would have to agree with her argument.
ReplyDeleteShe states that the cuts will result in more women losing health care and screenings. Also, women will lose access to birth control, which in turn will increase our population and make taxpayers pay more. I would agree with this because cutting funds for women who do not have insurance will leave them with no where to go, which then will cause an increase in the number of babies born each year, due to lack of birth control. Also, this could lead to an increase in deaths, due to STD's, cancer, or diabetes, because the women did not have proper health screenings.
My fellow classmates see's it as an attack on abortion clinics in Texas and I would have to agree with this as well. Texas is very conservative and believes that abortions are bad, but what about all the women who get pregnant due to rape or incest? They should have somewhere to turn to whether they have insurance or not. Since Planned Parenthood is funded from the Women's Health Program (WHP) and state family planning program, lawmakers have made it to were WHP is not allowed to give money to "any entity that provides abortions or is affiliated with an abortion provider." This has caused trouble for Planned Parenthood because even though they are separate from the abortion services they are still "affiliated."
I would have to agree with my fellow classmate because cutting family programs will only hurt the population more. The state will leave more women without anywhere to turn due to lack of insurance. This will have a negative affect on our population, and in time just cause taxpayers to pay more taxes to support more families in need of help from other family based programs.