As any woman knows, finding the right gynecologist is no small feat–but finding the “right” gynecologist is taking on a new meaning in Texas, where reproductive health providers must now show that their politics don’t clash with those of conservative lawmakers if they want to continue to see patients in the Texas Women’s Health Program.
The battle over the Women’s Health Program continues with thousands of women left without care as 2013 begins.
The new, state-funded Texas Women’s Health Program (WHP) will not launch tomorrow, despite state officials’ earlier claims that the program would be ready to see clients without the inclusion of Planned Parenthood.
A federal appeals court, on which sits a judge that Rush Limbaugh counts on his “team,” has refused to re-hear arguments against Texas’ barring of Planned Parenthood from participation in its Women’s Health Program.
![Rally in Austin, outside the Texas Dept. of Health. [img src]](http://rhrealitycheck.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/../../files/teaser-images/2012-04-03-grimes-187x125.jpg)
When clients come to the Downtown Planned Parenthood Clinic in Austin, Texas, they’re coming to get what they’ve always gotten: contraception, cancer screenings and STI tests. But what they’re getting, if they’re on the newly defunded Medicaid Women’s Health Program, is bad news: Planned Parenthood can’t see them any more.
It is incredibly frustrating that the very women the federal Medicaid law is intended to protect are the ones who are hurt the most, but those sanctions are the only tool HHS has at its disposal to enforce the law.
