Who Really Cares About Women's Health?

In an astounding misrepresentation of events, many news outlets have been reporting that Texas Republicans and Governor Rick Perry are canceling the Women's Health Program (WHP). The program, a Medicaid initiative to provide preventative health services to low-income women, is in fact slated to be canceled. However, it is President Obama who is trying to kill the program, and largely to make a political point.

The President's desire to end the program is due to new rules passed by the Texas Legislature in 2011. Texas now prohibits any WHP funds from going to entities that “perform or promote elective abortion,” a ruling that effectively excludes abortion-oriented Planned Parenthood. Critics of the new rules claim Planned Parenthood is essential to providing 'health-care' to low-income women, but the facts tell another story.

To begin, there are some 2,500 qualified providers in the WHP operating more than 4,600 locations. But there are only 44 Planned Parenthood sites, representing less than 2% of the clinics. According to a recent map published by the Texas Tribune, the Planned Parenthood clinics are concentrated in a few urban areas and surrounded by other WHP providers. 

But even if Planned Parenthood had more participating clinics, it appears they do not provide the kind of services most Americans associate with health care. According to public records, no Planned Parenthood clinic in Texas maintains equipment or licensing for mammogram machines. Furthermore, if a patient needs a doctor for anything other than abortion, she must be sent to another WHP clinic, since Planned Parenthood 'doctors' only perform abortions. Texas legislators wisely chose to cut out the middle man and send patients directly to comprehensive clinics.

Another troubling aspect of Planned Parenthood's participation in WHP is the organization's apparent disregard for the law. In 2009, Planned Parenthood San Antonio was fined more than $100,000 for operating four illegal abortion facilities without a license, and had to return hundreds of thousands of WHP funds. In the same year, Planned Parenthood of El Paso was found to have engaged in Medicaid fraud, and closed abruptly.

And the allegations keep coming. Last year former Planned Parenthood employee Karen Reynolds filed a complaint with the Texas Attorney General and the U.S. Department of Justice alleging that the organization systematically falsified medical charts for abortion clients to make it appear as if these clients came in for other services. Included in Reynold's complaint are memos instructing employees to falsify records to obtain Medicaid reimbursements. And just last week the Washington Times reported that former Planned Parenthood clinic director Abby Johnson has filed a federal lawsuit accusing Planned Parenthood clinics in Southeast Texas of submitting more than $6 million in fraudulent Medicaid claims.

In addition to legal and ethical problems (Planned Parenthood is also under investigation for sex trafficking of minor girls and failure to report abuse,) the abortion business doesn't provide much value to the taxpayer. According to the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, Planned Parenthood's cost per client is 43% higher than most other WHP providers.

Despite multiple issues surrounding Planned Parenthood's participation in the Women's Health Program, President Obama prefers to cancel the entire service rather than provide comprehensive health-care for low-income women. Furthermore, Planned Parenthood and the White House are attempting to blame Governor Perry for the demise of WHP. However, the Governor announced last week that Texas would replace the funds Obama canceled and will continue the program. It seems that while the President prefers to make political points about abortion, it is Texas and Governor Perry who are looking out for women's health.

Governor Perry: Obama Administration Placing Pro-Abortion Politics Over Women's Health

Editorial by Governor Rick Perry on the President's plan to cancel the Texas Women's Health Program.  You may thank the Governor for continuing this fight to provide comprehensive health care for poor women here. 

March 1, 2012
 
President Obama's Administration plans to cancel funding for a long-standing and cost-effective health and wellness program for more than 100,000 Texas women. This move will cut off access to screenings for breast and cervical cancer, hypertension and diabetes, STD testing and family planning services for Texas women who otherwise could not afford them.

Unfortunately, President Obama and his allies are once again putting their political agenda ahead of sound policy and the delivery of cost-efficient health care. They are trampling on the rights of states like Texas to create programs like the Women's Health Program and to administer it for Texans by Texans.

Why would the Obama Administration take away access to health care for low-income Texas women? Because this administration puts funding for abortion providers and affiliates ahead of funding for women's cancer screenings and other preventative health care. Texas, operating under the direction of an overwhelming and bipartisan majority of legislators, prohibits abortion providers and affiliates like Planned Parenthood from receiving taxpayer money.

Because Texas refuses to fund abortion providers and their affiliates, the federal government has announced that it will cancel the Women's Health Program. To me, this reflects a twisted set of values, not to mention a continued disregard for the basic concept of states' rights.

Under federal law, Washington leaves it to state leaders to administer the Medicaid program and set criteria for who is, and is not, a qualified provider. Consistent with state and federal law, the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) developed a program that would ensure continued access to care by qualified providers across Texas and asked the Obama Administration for approval.

However, the Obama Administration apparently is unwilling to allow the exclusion of organizations like Planned Parenthood, as Texas law requires, even though that organization represents less than 2 percent of enrolled providers. Texas has more than 2,500 qualified providers in 4,600 sites across the state, ready to deliver care.

If this debate were really about health care, the Obama Administration would allow the Texas Women's Health Program to continue.

Instead, the administration's stated intention to reject the Texas program reflects nothing more than its pro-abortion agenda, and is a blatant pander to the president's liberal base, which has made Planned Parenthood's abortion services a celebrated cause.

Texas is an easy target for such attacks because we value life and have worked hard to preserve and protect its sanctity over the years. We've passed laws requiring that parents be notified and give consent before their minor daughters abort a child, ensuring parents will be involved and ready to provide much-needed guidance and advice at the most critical of moments.

We've funded and promoted alternatives to abortion, and provided counseling for women on these other options, including adoption, which - in addition to saving a child - is one of the greatest gifts anyone can give a waiting mother and father.

We also created a law that will prevent abortions in Texas until the mother has a sonogram, because we believe women deserve to have all the information before making such a life-ending decision.

At our nation's founding, the architects of our constitution clearly spelled out precisely which powers were enumerated to the federal government and left the rest - explicitly - to the states.

While Washington has steadily undermined and weakened the authority of states and local communities to govern themselves, it wasn't until the last few years when states - especially more conservative states - were actively targeted by a presidential administration.

The Obama Administration has seized control of Texas' air-permitting process, put radical new interpretations of the Clean Air Act into effect and, worst of all, imposed a health care mandate on individual citizens and state governments that threatens to bankrupt us all.

The Texas women who face the prospect of losing access to preventative health care are only the latest to be caught in the crossfire of the Obama Administration's ongoing efforts to seize more control over the actions of every state, every town and every household.

Here in Texas, we will continue to fight back against all manner of federal encroachment into our lives, and any and all efforts to destroy or dilute the protections we've put in place for our unborn. President Obama, please abandon this misguided and unhealthy course of action and allow the Texas Women's Health Program to continue providing preventative health care and cancer screenings for Texas women.

Who is Exploiting Women's Health for Political Purposes? Updated

If you listened to Cecile Richards and the Planned Parenthood apologists last week, you might think that the State Legislature is planning to end funding for the Women's Health Program portion of Medicaid.  According to Cecile, et. al., poor women will die if Planned Parenthood doesn't get money from the state. 

The truth is that lawmakers are not cutting the Women's Health Program, but are trying to make sure the funds go to clinics that provide comprehensive health care.  Planned Parenthood customers only see a doctor for abortions, and then only at the procedure itself.  If a woman needs a doctor for anything other than an abortion, Planned Parenthood must refer her out to another facility.  But guess what?  If she does want an abortion, PP gets to sell one to her at a profit.  If we are serious about providing health care for poor women, we should not be sending them to clinics whose primary business is selling abortions, but to clinics that provide for all of a woman's potential health care needs. 

Sensing the tide turning against them, the pro-Planned Parenthood gang trotted out a woman who claimed Planned Parenthood saved her life with a screening test.  The test confirmed she had a sexually transmitted disease that can lead to cervical cancer later in life.  Of course, the other clinics funded by the Woman's Health Program also provide screenings for STD's, and if the woman needed a doctor for her complications, Planned Parenthood would not be able to provide one for her.

In light of these facts, it is apparent that if anyone is exploiting women's health issues for both political and financial gain, it is Planned Parenthood and Cecile Richards. At stake are millions of taxpayer dollars that are funneled to Planned Parenthood each year despite the fact that the organization reports a tidy profit from abortion sales.

Cecile Richards ought to be ashamed.

Update:  The Women's Health Program will expire if the Senate does not reauthorize by the upcoming deadline.   The only bill left standing to re-authorize is SB 1854 (Duell) which requires funds go to facilities that provide comprehensive health care for women.  Cecile Richards and Planned Parenthood are opposing SB 1854, and thus would rather see the Women's Health Program expire rather than lose their funds.  So much for putting women's needs above politics. 

Planned Parenthood Does Not Provide Comprehensive Healthcare

Knowing that most Americans are not excited about contributing funds for abortions, Planned Parenthood and other abortion 'clinics' prefer to hide behind an alleged concern for 'women's health.'  These groups would have us believe they are on the forefront of providing health care for poor women,  however, this is a vile deception and conceals the true nature of the industry.

Abortionists have found one of the most successful avenues for channeling both charity and tax dollars to already profitable abortion businesses, is via funds for breast cancer.  Many of us have mothers, sisters, and friends who have faced breast cancer, and on an emotional basis we willingly fund anything that claims to fight the disease.  By claiming to help in this and other women's health issues, Planned Parenthood Texas receives approximately $5 million from the state Medicaid Women's Health Program.  (Planned Parenthood receives another $12 million from the state in 'family planning' funds.)  Komen for the Cure, which purportedly exists to help prevent and cure breast cancer, gave Planned Parenthood  more than $730k in donations in 2009, and provided approximately  $3.3 million between 2004 and 2009.

So how many mammograms does Planned Parenthood Texas provide for poor women each year?  Apparently none.  While mammograms are considered an essential tool for early detection, clinics must be licensed to own the necessary equipment and perform the tests.  Of all the Planned Parenthood abortion clinics in Texas, not a single one has either license or equipment for mammograms. 

Furthermore, while Planned Parenthood claims to provide women's health services other than abortion, the only time patients see an actual doctor is during the abortion procedure.  There is no doctor-patient interaction or consultation, and few if any of these 'doctors' even have privileges at nearby hospitals.  For the most part the abortion doctors are circuit riders who travel between the 43 licensed Texas abortion clinics performing these essential women's health 'operations,' or more accurately, destroying their unwanted unborn children. 

At the end of this week, the Texas House will begin debating the budget bill (HB 1).  The bill includes funds for both the Medicaid Women's Health Program and 'family planning' services.  Planned Parenthood is slated to receive anywhere from $12-17 million of these women's health dollars (abortion alternatives will receive zero funding,) but abortion makes up 98% of their services.  Rather than continue to allow funds to flow to profitable abortion businesses, lawmakers ought to send those funds to facilities that provide a more comprehensive women's health plan, and actually allow a woman to see a doctor.