Planned Parenthood Funding Cut in Texas

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New Planned Parenthood Head Faces Home State Clinic Cuts
By Randy Hall
CNSNews.com Staff Writer/Editor
January 20, 2006

(CNSNews.com) - The Planned Parenthood Federation of America is marking the 33rd anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision on Jan. 22 with a new president. However, even as Cecile Richards takes the reins of the nation's most frequent provider of abortions, the organization may be forced to curtail services and even shut down clinics in an ironic location: her home state of Texas.

The likely cutbacks are the result of amendments to the two-year budget passed in 2005 by the Texas Legislature that shift $13 million in federal funds disbursed by the state from "individuals and entities that perform elective abortion procedures" to Federally Qualified Health Centers. The latter are described in the budget as offering "comprehensive primary and preventive care" in addition to family planning services.

The process of reallocating Planned Parenthood funding actually began in June 2003, when Republican state senators Steve Ogden and Tommy Williams sponsored a budget amendment that denied money to any family planning organization that provides abortions.

Planned Parenthood quickly filed a lawsuit to maintain its funding, and in August of that year, the federal district court in Austin granted a preliminary injunction preventing the amendment from taking effect.

In March of 2005, the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the original measure as constitutional, but the decision permitted clinics that provide abortions to create independent "affiliates" that would continue receiving money to provide other services.

That prompted state Sen. Robert Deuell to sponsor Rider 31, an attachment to the 2006-2007 budget that states:

"It is the intent of the Legislature that no state funds shall be used to pay the direct or indirect costs (including overhead, rent, phones and utilities) of abortion procedures provided by contractors of the department.

"It is also the intent of the Legislature that no funds appropriated under Strategy B.1.3, Family Planning Services, shall be distributed to individuals or entities that perform elective abortion procedures or that contract with or provide funds to individuals or entities for the performance of elective abortion procedures."

After both the amendment and the state budget were approved, Planned Parenthood of the Texas Capital Region stated on its website that, "the leadership of the Texas Legislature has once again let down the working families of our state.

 

This could not be accomplished until Republicans controlled both houses in Texas, as is now the case.