More than a quarter of women of childbearing age are uninsured in Texas, the highest rate in the nation, and the state has chosen to cap Medicaid benefits for new moms earlier than other states.
The remaining clinics that receive family planning funding from the state struggle to keep up with the demand for services.“This program has never left money on the table,” said Erika Ramirez, policy and advocacy director for the Texas Women’s Healthcare Coalition. “We really want to ensure that lawmakers know that our women’s health programs are … not currently meeting that need, and that need is only going to increase.
The state’s reproductive health care programs are additionally stretched, Ramirez said, because Texas is one of just two states that don’t cover contraception on its Children’s Health Insurance Program. Teens on this program who want to access contraception have to go through the state-funded Family Planning Program clinics.
“That’s an easy fix,” said Ramirez. “There’s actually evidence that this would produce cost savings for the state, and presumably if CHIP covers comprehensive care, to be able to access something as essential as contraception should be considered comprehensive care.”— teens having multiple children before their 18th birthday. Texas does not require high school students to take sex education to graduate.“We can’t get birth control. We can’t get adequate health care.
Lawmakers and abortion opponents have argued that the plan, as it were, rests on the Alternatives to Abortion program, which the state has invested over $100 million into in recent years. The program funds a network of nonprofits intended to support people in continuing their pregnancies,
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