Texas Legislature Working Together for Women’s Health?

Rep. Sarah Davis 

According The Texas Tribune, it seems that the two parties have a mutual agreement. Democrats will not push to reinstate Planned Parenthood in the Texas Women’s Health Program and Republicans will not put up barriers for women’s health care in Texas. During the Texas Tribune symposiumon The State of Women's Health, Rep. Sarah Davis (R-West University Place) said, “the major difference is we’re not fighting about it, we’re just doing what’s right for women and the state.” Davis is the only Republican member of the House Women’s Health Caucus.

Davis negotiated a bipartisan “grand bargain,” that would prevent amendments on the House budget bill that would have jeopardized an agreement to

The 2014-15 state budget is still in committee but at this point lawmakers have allocated more financing towards women’s health services before the 2011 budget cuts. Right now the house version of the bill has doubled financing for family planning services to $75 million. The Senate version increases family planning services to $43 million. The House and the Senate have both added $100 million to support the Texas Women’s Health Program. The programs was formally the Medicaid Women’s Health Program which lost $9-to-$1 federal match when the state decided to remove Planned Parenthood clinics from the programs.

“We should not be playing political football with women’s health,” Davis said, “because it doesn’t do either side any good.”

For more information on the state of women's health in Texas watch the Texas Tribune's symposium below.