Family planning losing, anti-abortion gaining
By Lomi Kriel
San Antonio Express-News (Austin Bureau) AUSTIN — Almost $5 million will be cut from health screening and contraceptive services and given to groups that counsel women against abortion under a provision attached to the state budget bill late Tuesday. Another $20 million will be diverted from family planning programs to similar programs at federally qualified health centers. The shift, approved along party lines, was criticized as shortsighted public policy by family planning groups that said the little more than $100 million their programs receive every two years is enough to serve only 25 percent of eligible women. Shifting or cutting that money will make the situation even bleaker, they said. "The result will be that women will not get the preventative health care they need," said Peggy Romberg, executive director of the Women's Health and Family Planning Association of Texas. "(Lawmakers) hate abortion but they're creating an environment where it will happen more." Romberg criticized shifting $5 million to crisis pregnancy centers that are unlicensed, unregulated and do not have licensed medical staff, she said, while family planning programs offer contraceptive services as well as diagnose diabetes, cancer and sexually transmitted diseases. But proponents of the funding shift said crisis pregnancy centers could address a different need by providing services for women who don't want to have an abortion. Those centers now aren't funded through the state and offer counseling and services for women who want to carry their baby to term. They said $5 million is a small portion of the overall funding and, "the money is better spent on providing alternatives," said Sen. Steve Ogden, R-College Station. The budget move came hours before the Senate approved a measure requiring pregnant teenagers to obtain their parents' written consent to have an abortion, a day after their House colleagues did the same. Current law requires parents to be notified, but if a minor can prove that will lead to abuse, she can bypass it through the courts. The bill was approved 24-5 but only on condition that it stays the same. "If this bill is in any way changed, I will pull the bill down," said its sponsor, Sen. Chris Harris, R-Arlington. On the family planning side, the loss of $2.5 million a year will mean three percent, or 8,334 women per year will not be able to receive those services anymore, according to the Department of State Health Services. Federally qualified health centers, such as the San Antonio-based El Centro Del Barrio, also offer family planning services, Romberg said. But shifting $20 million from current providers to those centers will put existing clinics in danger of closing down or cutting back their services and mean a "huge displacement in services," she said. Ogden said the centers, "do a good job and we need to encourage their growth." The centers draw down a high federal match to serve patients in medically underserved areas. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
lkriel@express-news.net
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Online at: http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/stategov/stories/MYSA051905.8A.lege_abortion.28a6d164a.html
| 
