Home / Dallas News / Trump renews Medicaid funding Texas lost for excluding Planned Parenthood from women’s health program

Trump renews Medicaid funding Texas lost for excluding Planned Parenthood from women’s health program

AUSTIN — The Trump Administration has approved federal funding for the state’s Healthy Texas Women program, which offers health care and family planning services to thousands of low-income women but excludes Planned Parenthood.

This marks the first time federal Medicaid funding has been granted to a program that excludes health care providers that perform abortions, and critics say this allows other states to follow suit.

A unit of the federal Department of Health and Human Services approved the “Medicaid waiver,” a move that frees federal money for states to experiment with new approaches in the nation’s main health care program for the poor and disabled.

In the Wednesday announcement of the funding, Gov. Greg Abbott praised President Donald Trump for allowing Texas to foster a “culture of life.”

“This collaboration is a symbol of our commitment to championing the lives of Texas women,” Abbott said in the written statement. “I am grateful to President Trump and his administration for approving this waiver, and for his commitment to protecting the unborn while providing much-needed health resources to Texas women.”

Texas lost federal funding for the program, first launched in 2007 as the Women’s Health Program, after excluding Planned Parenthood in 2011 because some affiliates of the organization provide abortions. The program never covered abortions.

Planned Parenthood had provided services such as birth control, cancer screenings and other family planning services to more than 40% of the women in the program, according to Planned Parenthood Texas Votes.

Texas began funding the program from the state’s general revenue in 2013. When the state rebranded the program as Healthy Texas Women in 2016, it contracted the evangelical Heidi Group to help provide services. It ended the contract in 2018 after the group failed to meet its promise to serve 50,000 women.

The state applied for the Medicaid waiver in 2017. The state Health and Human Services Commission said the agreement for the state to receive about $350 million in federal funds over five years was reached on Wednesday. The federal government will contribute an average of $69 million to the program each year while the state provides an average of about $20 million per year.

“With Governor Abbott’s strong leadership, we continue making significant strides in improving access to women’s health and family planning services in Texas,” said Courtney N. Phillips, HHS executive commissioner.

Rep. Jeff Leach, R-Plano, who has pushed for more funding to create awareness of the program in the past also praised the federal and state partnership.

“Today’s historic announcement is a huge milestone in our state’s commitment to provide quality, comprehensive healthcare and family planning services for Texas women while, at the same time, vigorously protecting the sanctity of life,” he said in a prepared statement.

But progressive groups criticized the announcement, saying the federal funding will not necessarily increase support for Texas women.

“Instead of ideological attacks on women’s health providers, state and federal leaders should focus on ways to actually improve access to high-quality health care for women,” said Stacey Pogue, a senior policy analyst with the left-leaning Center for Public Policy Priorities in Austin.

The center found in 2017 that despite increased state investment in the program fewer women were being served than before Planned Parenthood was cut in 2011, when an estimated 115,226 women accessed health care. Between 2011 and 2016, enrollment in the program dropped by 24%, and of those enrolled, 39% fewer accessed health care services, according to the center.

The program served about 173,000 women during the 2018 fiscal year, according to HHS, and the new funding will allow it to serve more than 200,000 clients a year.

Planned Parenthood Texas Votes, a civic engagement arm of Planned Parenthood, criticized the Trump administration’s approval of the waiver for upending “longstanding federal policy.”

“Reproductive health care has been under constant attack for more than a decade in Texas and extreme politicians in the state have only been emboldened by support from the Trump administration,” the organization said in an email.

Texas officials have increasingly sought to restrict government funding for Planned Parenthood and organizations affiliated with abortion providers.

Lawmakers passed a law in 2019 prohibiting government entities from entering a “taxpayer resource transaction” with an abortion provider or an affiliate. Under this law, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said earlier this month that state employees can no longer donate to Planned Parenthood through a state charity program.

Check Also

Murky waters in creek prompt testing in Garland

City crews in Garland are investigating reports of murky waters in a local creek following …