Tonight at 8 PM on KLRN TV, Texas Week with Rick Casey will feature a discussion of the Women's Health Program (WHP) and its prospects for renewal in the 82nd Texas Legislature. Dr. Janet Realini, President of Healthy Futures of Texas appears and expresses her concerns about the human and economic costs to Texas, if WHP is not renewed. She also discusses the shortage of providers for WHP.
Right now, the bills that would renew WHP (Senate Bill 1854 by Sen. Deuell and House Bill 2299 by Reps. Coleman and Naishtat) are "dead". These bills would have strictly excluded Planned Parenthood clinics as providers for the program, and contained a "nuclear option" to end the WHP program if Planned Parenthood successfully sued to overturn their exclusion. The provisions of these bills can still be "resurrected", however -- as amendments to bills being considered by the legislature.
WHP provides checkups and birth control, but not abortion, to low-income women age 18-44. As a demonstration project, WHP will end in December 2011 unless it is reauthorized by the legislature. This program is so important for low-income women's access to preventive care and birth control!
WHP improves maternal and child health, prevents unplanned pregnancies, prevents abortions, and saves Texas money. Texas saves $10 for each $1 it puts into the program, and renewal of WHP is estimated to save the state over $83 million in the next biennium. Currently, about 40% of the approximately 120,000 women receiving WHP each year are served by Planned Parenthood clinics.
Tonight's Texas Week will be rebroadcast at 1 PM on Sunday, and it will be posted on the KLRN website.
