Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) effectively defunded his state’s Planned Parenthood earlier this year by barring it and any other “abortion affiliates” from receiving funds under the Texas Women’s Health Program (TWHP). The government eventually cut off the program for not complying with the law, but Perry insisted he’d continue it — but on his own terms.
It turns out those terms mean blocking funding for anyone who even talks about abortion.
In a letter explaining the Texas Department of Health and Human Services’s proposed new rules, they have expanded their ban from “affiliates” (abortion providers or clinics attached to abortion providers) to “promoters” and those who affiliate with “promoters.”..
Banning “promotion” effectively means banning any women’s health care provider who mentions the word abortion or has informational material about how a woman might be able to seek out the procedure. Banning those who affiliate with someone who promotes abortion even further broadens the number of facilities that will not be able to recieve state funds.
This is outrageous! Women of Texas, take note.
See this and more on my Pinterest War on Women wall of shame.
so, let’s be clear that this is not banning use of state or federal money for abortion. This is banning doctors from providing any information about abortion (where to get it, health benefits and risks, etc) to a client who is paying for the consultation through TWHP.
But let’s talk about this “war on women” phrase. Statistics showing who uses TWHP by race are difficult to find (if not nonexistent), but this is a Medicaid program and about 62% of medicaid users in Texas identify as Hispanic (source). That should make a massive difference in how we talk about these rules.
Cause from where I sit, looking at that number, it’s disingenuous to say this is part of a war on all women. This is about hispanic women in Texas. This is about keeping them impoverished for generations; it’s about forcing them to have babies they can’t afford and then calling them leeches on society for doing things like using government resources to feed their kids (like all hispanic people are, because they’re all undocumented immigrants who don’t deserve access to our resources, right?); it’s about keeping birth rates among hispanic women high to feed the “anchor baby” myth and manipulate white fears of not being the majority population in Texas anymore for political gain.
Calling this part of a “war on women” erases these racialized effects of the law. And this is HARDLY the only “war on women” law that disproportionately affects non-white women - in fact most of what I’ve seen come out of the “war” ends up disproportionately affecting non-white women.
how long are we going to keep refusing to acknowledge that this “war” has been mainly about implementing gendered forms of structural racism?
Yesterday, a federal judge in Austin said that Texas’ law to deny Planned Parenthood’s involvement in the state’s Women’s Health Program was unconstitutional. He put an injunction on the law meaning that TX could not deny PP until there was an appeal and trial on his ruling.
The state’s Attorney General immediately put in a request for a stay on that injunction.
The stay went through this morning. The injunction has been voided. The state can continue to exclude PP from the WHP.
The judge who granted the stay is a 5th circuit court judge, Jerry Smith. He is this guy: Federal Judge Demands Obama Explain ‘Obamacare’ Statements. Also, it was the 5th circuit that said TX’s forced ultrasound law was totes constitutional and should be in effect until an appeal is heard by SCOTUS.
So…this is why expectations in TX must be low.
oh for fuck’s sake
(Source: keepyourbsoutofmyuterus)
The Oklahoma personhood bill was found unconstitutional, and so was Rick Perry’s denying Women’s Health Program coverage through Planned Parenthood.
SO PUMPED THAT RICK PERRY CAN’T TAKE AWAY COVERAGE FROM TEXAS WOMEN
WOOT!
IMPORTANT NEWS Y’ALL
Cecile Richards - Don’t Mess with Texas Women (by plannedparenthood)
For those of you who don’t know what’s going on, this article goes into some detail
What happened is:
- A recently signed Texas law bans any state funding going to an abortion provider or affiliate
- The Texas Medicaid women’s health program is mostly administered through Planned Parenthood
- 9/10 of the funding for this program comes through a federal grant, the rest comes from the state of Texas [src]
- The Obama administration has decided to withdraw funding because according to federal law it’s not legal to bar PP from participating in the program
- which will effectively kill the program
- Texas administration says it is legal to bar PP because state’s rights
- 130,000 underprivileged and impoverished women in Texas rely on this program for most or all of their healthcare needs
- This is urgent. It is not acceptable to throw 130,000 women under the bus while the state gov and the federal gov take years to duke it out in court.
- I’ll be following this issue over the next few days. I’ll keep y’all posted on ways you can take action, but meanwhile:
- If you live in Texas, the best thing to do is call your state senator, your representative, and the governor’s office and make your opinion known.
- Also, as always, donate to planned parenthood.
Unless some last-minute agreement is brokered, the program, which receives $9 in federal funds for every $1 in state funds, will be either phased out or cut off by the end of March. At least 130,000 poor Texas women will lose access to cancer screenings, well-woman exams and contraception.
Republican lawmakers worked overtime last legislative session to design language that would keep any Planned Parenthood-affiliated clinics from receiving state family planning and women’s health dollars, despite the fact that taxpayer-funded clinics may not perform abortions. They got the backing of Abbott, who said their efforts were legal, and gave the state’s health commissioner the go-ahead to implement the new language.
But when Texas was faced with renewing the Women’s Health Program this year, officials with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said the state’s plans violated the Social Security Act. They gave the program a three-month extension, but said they had no intention of renewing if Planned Parenthood, which provides 44 percent of the program’s services, was blacklisted.
Komen for the Cure founder Nancy Brinker goes from “deal with it” to “I’m sorry” in the space of 15 hours. Make up your mind, dude.
The internet wins again. I am so fucking sick of the “internet activism doesn’t do shit” crowd.
Even though this was strictly a PR move, it shows the power that the public voice has and how effectively the internet can be a means of making that voice heard. (which is probably another reason the government/big business is so hell bent on censoring it).
Doin’ stuff isn’t for chumps. It’s how things get changed.
She said, “I’m sorry we stopped funding planned parenthood” on twitter- that’s all. Susan G. Komen still refuses to reinstate funding for planned parenthood.
Daily Kos has more details about how the corporate media dutifully reported that Komen reinstated funding for Planned Parenthood, even though it’s completely and totally untrue.
SIGNAL BOOST. This fight is far from over. They’re pulling one over on us!
Ok. I seriously love Amy Poehler even more.
I’m totally going to donate and YOU SHOULD TOO!
Help Planned Parenthood out! :)
woot! totes doing this after my next paycheck!
goodness know PP needs all the help we can give them right now, to thank them for helping os many.
The Texas Legislature has voted to defund Planned Parenthood today and I can think of no better way than this to remind each and every member of said legislature, and Perry because you know he’ll sign it, that they can go fuck themselves with a pineapple.
(Source: motheatenmusicalbrocade)
