The Texas medical lobby is complaining about the rules the state put in place to protect taxpayers by cutting of taxpayer funding from counseling in favor of abortions.
A few physician and medical advocacy groups announced their joint opposition to pro-life rules the Texas Health and Human Services Commission is considering. Their press release threatened that thousands of medical providers will boycott the state’s Women’s Health Program (WHP) if the pro-life rule is adopted.
“This anti-life publicity stunt is not surprising since these groups have lobbied against Pro-Life legislation for years, including our state’s new Sonogram Law,” says Elizabeth Graham, director of Texas Right to Life. “Agencies and doctors should not be paid with our tax dollars to tell pregnant women and girls where and how to find an abortion. Sadly, women seeking abortion don’t have to look far in Texas, and health care providers in the Women’s Health Program (WHP) should not be promoting abortion with our money.”
Graham says the point of contention is the definition of “promote abortion.”
“The Pro-Life rule under attack would ensure that no agency or entity that provides or promotes abortion, or affiliates with an organization that provides or promotes abortion can participate in the WHP,” she said.
“When the WHP was established in 2005 and then renewed in 2011 by the Legislature, the legislative intent was clear, but in their own letter, Planned Parenthood, America’s largest abortion provider, confirmed that they’ve received millions of taxpayer dollars from the WHP in Texas,” Graham explains. “The Pro-Life rule is necessary to ensure that this program does not continue as a taxpayer revenue stream for the abortion industry in Texas.”
Graham says the pro-life rules have been vetted and approved by numerous boards and committees in Texas and reflects the will of the legislature to direct women’s health care dollars to agencies that are not sullied by involvement in or promotion of abortion.
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“The medical lobby is fighting back because Texas Right to Life beat most of their candidates in the recent election cycle,” the pro-life advocate concluded. “”They know that more and stricter Pro-Life rules will only be forthcoming from our new Pro-Life legislators so they are trying to do what Obama does — circumvent the fair, democratic process by enacting agency rules and playing tricks with bureaucracy procedures.”
Texas Right to Life is urging pro-life Texans to contact Health and Human Services Executive Commissioner Kyle Janek to urge adoption of the pro-life rules and to let her know they do not want their tax dollars going to organizations that perform or promote abortions.
