Planned Parenthood To Close Three Texas Clinics [View all]
The three clinics are located in Bryan, Huntsville and Lufkin, Texas. They are closing in response to a new package of abortion restrictions signed into law on Thursday and funding cuts to Texas' Women's Health Program that were passed by the Texas state legislature in 2011. Out of the three Planned Parenthood clinics that are closing, only the Bryan clinic performs abortions.
In recent years, Texas politicians have created an increasingly hostile environment for providers of reproductive health care in underserved communities. Texans with little or no access to health care services have been deeply affected by state budget cuts to programs provided by Planned Parenthood health centers and dozens of others that provided lifesaving cancer screenings, well-woman exams and birth control," said Melaney A. Linton, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast."
The combined impact of years of budget cuts to womens health care services and the dismantling of the successful Womens Health Program will take affordable, preventive health care options away from women in Bryan, Lufkin and Huntsville just as these policies have taken health care away from an estimated 130,000 others when Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast is forced to close these family planning health centers at the end of August," she said.
Ensuring Texas women have access to the care they need to stay healthy, especially women in rural and underserved areas, goes to the heart of our mission," she continued. "We are making every effort to provide resources for our patients faced with health center closings, however the alarming reality is that most will be left with no real options for getting the basic, preventive health care they need."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/18/planned-parenthood-texas-_n_3617299.html