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women in politics
Deep in the Heart of Texas: Women’s Health (or Lack Thereof) Daniel Rubin | Illustration by Mitch Atkin
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n American Cicero once said, “Too many good docs are gettin’ out of business. Too many OBGYNs aren’t able to practice their love with women all across this country.” Former President Bush (not H.W.) must, at this moment, feel betrayed by his fellow Texas Republicans. They constitute a particularly egregious example of radical state legislators and governors hoping to insert themselves between women (particularly low-income) and the OBGYNs that love them. Republicans nationwide have employed a blast-from-the-past strategy that takes me (or perhaps my grandpa) back to 1961, when birth control was first publically marketed for contraceptive use and Chubby Checker’s “Let’s Twist Again” was burning up the charts. While the term “War on Women” has been somewhat cynically trumpeted for political gain, the actions of Governor Rick Perry and GOP-controlled Texas Legislature are difficult to describe in other terms. A few tidbits on the state of Texas healthcare: First, according to a Public Citizen Health Research Group study, the state’s Medicaid program ranks 48th in the US. While many states either ration services or decrease eligibility, Texas has done both (part of the “everything is bigger” ethos perhaps). Second, 25% of Texans lack health insurance, putting the state dead last in the nation. Third, uh, um… Oops. Despite the Texas economic miracle that Perry touted during his short-lived but entertaining presidential campaign, the federal government provides much needed funding for women’s health services while the legislature cuts state programs. For the Women’s Health Program, which is part of Medicaid, the federal government provides $9 for every $1 in state funding. This program does not provide low-income Texas women with abortions, but it does give them access to mammograms, birth control and papsmears. In many instances, it facilitates the only medical care such Texans regularly receive. But the debate over abortion has morphed into a behemoth that threatens to swallow basic and essential health care for women. The Texas GOP is willing to do away with both its core principles and women’s health care over issues with even a tangential, squinty-eyed relation to abortion. In mid-March, Texas lost $30 million in federal funding for the Women’s Health Program. A 2005 state law finally put into action denied funding to Planned Parenthood because of its abortion “affiliation.” (Abortion services are legally and financially severed from its other service provisions precisely to avoid this complication). Because of the Hyde Amendment, federal monies only go toward the 97% of Planned Parenthood services that are not abortions. In any case, the Texas
law ran up against a pesky federal statute from the Social Security Act, stating, “any individual eligible for medical assistance (including drugs) may obtain such assistance from any institution, agency, community pharmacy, or person qualified to perform the service or services required.” As evidenced by their complying with all relevant ordinances and Texas authorities allowing them to continue operations, Planned Parenthood is clearly “qualified.” So, Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius warned Texas that implementation of the rule would make the state ineligible for federal Women’s Health funds. Predictably, though ironically, Perry blamed the Obama Administration withdrawing the money. Perry seems to desire that the Federal government leave Texas be in nearly every other instance. Interestingly, I guess principles extend only so far. Perry’s solution: States to the rescue. He has vowed that Texas will cover the shortfall in federal funds resulting from the state’s violation of federal rules. Here’s the problem: in its gleeful desire to cut basic service provisions after the 2010 midterm elections, state legislators slashed the funding for women’s health and family planning programs run out of the Department of State Health Services. According to a report by Austin’s Center for Public Policy Priorities, these cuts left 150,000 women without vital health services. Without federal funding, another 130,000 could lose care (some estimates range up to 400,000 total), leaving it for only 61,000 women. This constitutes an 80% reduction in people served. Even if the state money miraculously materialized, Planned Par-
But the debate over abortion has morphed into a behemoth that threatens to swallow basic and essential health care for women. The Texas GOP is willing to do away with both its core principles and women’s health care over issues with even a tangential, squinty-eyed relation to abortion.