Pregnancy program's draft of rules draws fire
By Corrie MacLaggan
AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Saturday, October 01, 2005 State initiative would bar groups that refer women for abortions. Abortion rights advocates in Texas are criticizing a proposal that would prevent groups that provide abortions or refer women to abortion clinics from participating in a new state program to promote childbirth instead. The "alternatives to abortion" program, which will use $2.5 million each of the next two years from the state's $54 million-per-year Family Planning program, was included in this year's state budget. The state budget says the Health and Human Services Commission should "implement a statewide program for women seeking alternatives to abortion focused on pregnancy support services that promote childbirth." A draft of wording seeking proposals from groups to participate in the program states the vendor and any subcontractors must "be unassociated with and be completely separate from any entity advocating for, counseling for, referring for, or providing abortions." Anti-abortion groups say the language in the draft proposal is aligned with lawmakers' goals to create a program that offers resources for women who decide against abortion. Planned Parenthood, other groups and a key lawmaker say the draft proposal oversteps the Legislature's intent by ruling out organizations that provide abortions or give information about both abortions and alternatives to abortion. As many as 100 entities could be excluded, including medical schools, health departments with family planning programs and community health centers, according to an official with the Women's Health and Family Planning Association of Texas. The draft document "goes well beyond the language" of the legislation, said Heather Paffe, political director for the Texas Association of Planned Parenthood Affiliates. "There is no good reason for this restriction, and it could exclude well-established community providers from participating in the program." But Stacey Emick, legislative director for the Houston-based Texas Right to Life, said the Legislature's intent was to create a niche for programs exclusively serving women who opt against abortion and that the yearly $2.5 million is small compared with the $54 million budget for programs that provide birth control and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases. "For the first time, the state has taken an interest in and decided to fund abortion alternatives," she said. "Abortion providers — that's not their specialty," she said. The draft document, "seems to me to be congruent with the legislative intent, absolutely congruent with the language passed," Emick said. But groups that provide abortions and refer women to abortion clinics say they could perform the mission as well as other agencies. Paffe said that 98 percent of services provided at Planned Parenthood's 83 Texas clinics are for preventive health care. Only eight clinics provide abortions.
Anne Dunkelberg, assistant director of the Center for Public Policy Priorities, an advocate group for low- and moderate-income families, said she was surprised by the language in the draft.
"It's always dicey for an agency to go outside what they've been specifically authorized to do in the statutory language," Dunkelberg said. Jennifer Harris, spokeswoman for the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, stressed that the language is a draft, and she said it does not stray from legislative intent. The legislation "leaves it open to the discretion of the commission for us to try to define it," she said.
Criticism, praise split
The deadline was Sept. 23 for the public to send comments on the draft proposal to the state Health and Human Services Commission. The commission plans to release the final request for proposals on or after Oct. 14. The commission received more than 900 e-mails and letters about the draft, split between criticism and support, Harris said. "There are certainly strong feelings on both sides," Harris said, adding that the commission does not usually issue drafts of its requests for proposals but did so because of the sensitivity surrounding this issue. Sen. Tommy Williams, R-The Woodlands, who wrote the budget amendment creating the new program, was busy in areas of his district hit by Hurricane Rita this week and was unavailable for comment, his office said. In March he told the American-Statesman, "What we did was earmark $5 million for pregnancy assistance centers," which provide pregnancy testing and counseling against abortion. Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, vice chairwoman of the Senate's finance committee, said "there were no public discussions specifying that legislative intent was to limit participation to nonabortion clinics." "It would be a disservice for the alternatives program to exclude some providers, thereby limiting the alternatives available to women in need," Zaffirini, who is anti-abortion but opposed creating the program, said in a written statement.
Programs in question
The draft mirrors language in early versions of the legislation that were removed from the final budget adopted by the Legislature because of opposition from some lawmakers, said Peggy Romberg, CEO of the Women's Health and Family Planning Association of Texas, which represents family planning agencies, medical schools, hospital districts and a variety of nonprofit organizations. Romberg said the language could prohibit groups such as the Brownsville-area Planned Parenthood of Cameron and Willacy counties from participating in the state program. That group has a program called Positive Directions, which teaches pregnant teenagers parenting skills, encourages them to stay in school and teaches them to prevent second pregnancies by using birth control, said Joey de la Garza, public affairs director for that Planned Parenthood. "That is a program that deals with pregnant women that does not promote abortion but happens to be at Planned Parenthood, which makes referrals for abortion" and therefore may not be eligible for the state funds, Romberg said. Paffe of the Texas Association of Planned Parenthood Affiliates stressed that her concern was not about Planned Parenthood being excluded from the program but about "the entire network of well-established community health care providers in Texas that may be excluded if they want to participate."
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