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Melissa Fletcher Stoeltje & Aaron M. Nelsen
Houston Chronicle (Hearst Newspapers)
SAN ANTONIO – For years, Darlene Dominguez, 33, got her birth control pills, Pap smears and breast cancer exams at a Planned Parenthood clinic in downtown San Antonio.
As a client of the Women’s Health Program, Dominguez received this care for free – a godsend for the single mother of three whose job at a day care center doesn’t provide health insurance. The family planning piece was critical, she said: Becoming pregnant again would derail her dreams of operating her own business one day.
But, like tens of thousands of women across the state, Dominguez is having to find a new place to get care. In a 2011 fight over abortion, Texas lawmakers booted Planned Parenthood clinics from the WHP, even though the 51 affected clinics, none of which performed abortions, served nearly half of the more than 100,000 women enrolled in the program.
In turn, the federal government withdrew the $30 million a year it gave to Texas, saying the state couldn’t exclude certain clinics for no good reason.
That same year, legislators also cut other family planning funds by two-thirds – from $111 million to $37.9 million – in part to starve Planned Parenthood, some acknowledged. Both changes, according to some health care experts, especially hurt poor women in rural areas, where Planned Parenthood was the sole provider, further limiting their access to services.
State officials disagree, saying new providers have stepped in to supplant Planned Parenthood and other clinics that were part of the Women’s Health Program so care wasn’t interrupted.
Now, the House and Senate have put forth proposals to add $100 million back into family planning and preventive care in the next two-year budget. Legislators also have included $70 million for what’s now renamed the Texas Women’s Health Program, which operates without Planned Parenthood or federal funds.
(Read more of this story at Chron.com)
LOCAL AREA HEADLINES:
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- Hospital helps deliver Mother’s Day miracles (KPRC 2 News)
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- Former Olympian, world champion boxer hopes to knock out low self esteem in children (Your Houston News)
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- Houstonians join the Blue Cure movement to learn how to live the anti-cancer lifestyle (KHOU 11 News)
- Holocaust Museum lauds retired director (Chron.com)
- More Hiring Managers Insist On Degrees For Low-Skilled Jobs (KUHF Public Radio)
STATE HEADLINES:
- Latinos May Need More Than ‘Miracle’ to Prosper in Texas (KUT News-Austin)
- Fund for Veterans’ Tuition Exemptions in the Works (Texas Tribune)
- West EMT “let go” after explosion (KPRC 2 News)
NATION & WORLD:
- IRS targeted groups critical of government, documents from agency probe show (Washington Post)
- Dramatically Different Medicare Bills Set Hospitals Thinking (NPR)
- Pentagon grapples with sex crimes by military recruiters (Washington Post)
- New Orleans parade shooting injures 19, including 2 kids; FBI: Appears to be ‘street violence’ (ABC News)
- Bangladesh Plans to Raise Pay for Garment Workers (New York Times)