Big win for pro-lifers, cutting off access to medical care in Texas:
The number of claims filed for medical and family planning services in the new state-run Texas Women’s Health Program has dropped since the state ousted Planned Parenthood from it and set up its own program without federal financing, according to figures from the Health and Human Services Commission.
Stephanie Goodman, a spokeswoman for the commission, wrote in an email that the program is “running at about 77 percent of the number of claims this year compared to last year.” She added that the agency expects to “see a similar trend with the number of women served,” though those numbers are more difficult to calculate.
“We expected to see a drop-off in the number of claims when we moved to the state program because we knew some women wouldn’t want to change doctors,” Goodman said. “We’ve been able to find new doctors for women who call us, and we’ve got the capacity to increase the number of women we’re serving in the state program.”
In 2011, Texas lawmakers demanded that the state enforce a rule prohibiting women’s health care providers affiliated with abortion facilities, such as Planned Parenthood, from participating in the Medicaid Women’s Health Program. At the time, Planned Parenthood clinics — which could not perform abortions at facilities accepting state and federal funding through the program — served 40 percent of women enrolled in it, according to the health commission.
I didn’t think access to health care for poor people could get much worse in Texas, but I forgot about the morality factor.
Hopefully they can get that unplanned and teen pregnancy number up, also.