Texas Planned Parenthood Ban Upheld

(The first video explains the debate between Planned Parenthood and the State of Texas and how the Texas State Legislature is involved. The second video explains the effect of the recent ban upheld by the Texas courts on Planned Parenthood's participation in the Women's Health Program.)

A Texas judge upheld a ban on Planned Parenthood to participate in a state-run and state-funded program, the Women's Health Program. The program is named after the federally funded program that the State of Texas passed on participating in and subsequently passed on hundreds of millions of federal dollars in Medicaid aimed at women's health all because the program would benefit local Planned Parenthood chapters.

A state law that went into effect this year requires Texas to provide funding to all women's health clinics except those that are affiliated with abortion providers. Because of this new law, Texas is no longer eligible to receive federal funding and therefore Planned Parenthood loses their federal funding as well.

According to CNN, 90% of the services Planned Parenthood's "clinics provide are cancer screenings, birth control and testing for diseases." Last year alone Planned Parenthood accounted for half of the Women's Health Program services. According to New Republic these services were "mostly in the form of cancer, diabetes, and STI treatment, plus high blood pressure screenings, contraception dispersement and annual checkups."

This leaves 50,000 women to search for new primary care doctor within the Women's Health Program, a program that may not be able to accommodate all of those women.

After forgoing participation in the federally funded Women's Health Program, Texas will now have to come up with over $200 million over the next 5 years to fund state's program.