In the wake of the report, reproductive health advocates are
blaming the increase on Republican-led budget cuts that decimated the ranks of
Texas’s reproductive healthcare clinics. In 2011, just as the spike began, the
Texas state legislature cut $73.6m from the state’s family planning budget of
$111.5m. The two-thirds cut forced more than 80 family planning clinics to shut
down across the state. Theremaining clinics managed
to provide services – such as low-cost or free birth control, cancer screenings
and well-woman exams – to only half as many women as before.
At the same time, Texas eliminated all Planned Parenthood
clinics – whether or not they provided abortion services – from the state
program that provides poor women with preventive healthcare. Previously,
Planned Parenthood clinics in Texas offered cancer screenings and contraception
to more than 130,000 women.
No comments:
Post a Comment