New Texas rule could end Women's Health Program
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The Texas Department of Health and Human Services announced Thursday it will enforce a new state law that could shut down the Women's Health Program, which provides health care to more than impoverished 130,000 women.
Last year, the Republican-controlled Legislature passed a law making it illegal for the state to provide Medicaid funds to a doctor or clinic that is affiliated with an organization that provides elective abortions, even if the institution receiving the money does not provide them. Commissioner Tom Suehs signed the rule Thursday and will begin enforcing it March 14. Lawmakers who supported the bill bragged that it would keep government funds from going to Planned Parenthood clinics that provide family planning and health services, though not abortions.
The new state law, however, contradicts a federal law that says the state cannot pick and choose which qualified health care providers receive state funding, according to a letter from Cindy Mann, the director of the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Mann said that Texas could lose federal funding for the Women's Health Program if the rule is enforced.
The Legislature anticipated the possible conflict and discussed whether the law would shut down the $40 million program. But Republican lawmakers argued that no taxpayer money should go to any organization that performs elective abortions under any circumstances.
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