Millions for Propaganda ... Nothing for Women's Health

Texas heavily underwrites anti-abortion centers, while slashing reproductive care


Anti-choice crisis pregnancy centers (orange) vastly outnumber the state's dwindling number of abortion care clinics (green). Some 200 CPCs, including 25 state-funded (red), seek to dissuade women from undergoing abortions and typically offer limited to no medical services.

To your right, a basket full of free pocket-size Bibles and Christ-centered booklets; to your left, as you enter Austin LifeCare, a prayer request bowl. The unassuming pastel green building on West Anderson Lane advertises, ambiguously, "pregnancy support." However, the center offers no medical services, only free pregnancy testing and non-diagnostic sonograms. It does, on first visit, offer plenty of literature discouraging abortion. You may leave with a glossy magazine, published by national Christian-based network Care Net, claiming to help pregnant women make the "best choice," and doing so by interspersing misleading information about abortion with personal narratives of shame, remorse, and sadness. The magazine cover, referring to abortion-inducing drug RU-486, reads, "RU Sure? The 'Safe' Drug That Can Kill You." Or you could pick up a pink pamphlet that erroneously links breast cancer to abortion. Or a pocket Bible with a preface recounting the story of abortion regret – overcome by the love of Jesus Christ.

Persuading women to "choose life" is the core mission of Austin LifeCare; in fact, under the terms of their state funding as well as their stated mission, the center cannot refer clients for an abortion, no matter if their clients need or request the service. Despite the religious overtones, overt anti-choice agenda, and documented claims of dispersing medical inaccuracies, LifeCare and 24 other "crisis pregnancy centers" – from Dallas to Houston – are generously subsidized by the state of Texas. And even as the women's health network drastically erodes at the hands of conservative lawmakers, taxpayer dollars to CPCs stand to receive an unprecedented increase in funding this legislative session.

An Unhealthy Diversion

Texas crisis pregnancy centers – pseudo-clinics designed to discourage abortion – have seen an infusion of taxpayer funding over the years, beginning with a 2005 effort by Republican legislators who succeeded in diverting funding intended to assist low-income households into the "Alternatives to Abortion" program. Former state Sen. Tommy Williams, R-Woodlands, initiated a new program redirecting $5 million of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families funding to instead offer "pregnancy support services that promote childbirth," underwriting organizations that do not refer clients to any group that provides abortions. In following sessions, lawmakers redirected funding dedicated to family planning into the Alternatives program.

In each subsequent session, lawmakers have maintained or increased funding for the Alternatives to Abortion program – starting with $2.5 million in 2008, steadily rising to $5.15 million allocated for 2015 – while deeply slashing family planning funds and otherwise blocking women's access to health care. For example, in 2011: As conservatives cut the family planning budget by $74 million (two-thirds of the previous allotment) and blocked state dollars to Planned Parenthood, they simultaneously raised funding for the unregulated, unlicensed CPCs. By the Department of State Health Services' own estimation, some 180,000 women lost access to basic care each year following the cuts as 82 state-funded family planning clinics eventually closed their doors or stopped offering services.

Read more: http://www.austinchronicle.com/news/2015-04-17/millions-for-propaganda-nothing-for-womens-health/