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PRAY! Planned Parenthood Could Be Toast In Texas! Last week the Lord drove out Planned Parenthood from our public library. No sooner than we gave public praise to our Great God and King for this wonderful victory, He is answering even more prayers. In today's paper, it was announced that our state legislators are considering defunding every family planning organization that performs abortions. If it passes, there is a strong possibility that the holocaust in Waco and in other cities in Texas will come to a grinding halt. Planned Parenthood will have to decide either to end abortion and continue to receive funding or lose the funding to continue their murderous rampage. They will no longer be able to do both, if this rider passes. In light of this critical moment, which has brought us ever so close to the ultimate Christian/Pro-life victory in our city, we are calling for an emergency prayer meeting at our Church. We will be meeting on Wednesday, May 21st, at 7 pm at Church on the Rock, located at 4720 N. 19th St. If at all possible, please try to attend and let us pray this rider through to protect little precious boys and girls waiting to be born in their mother's wombs. If your out of our state or city please pray as well. Let us pray they will pass this bill, defund abortion, end this murderous nightmare once and for all, and liberate our city from the sin of shedding innocent blood in Jesus' Holy Name! - RT Texas Senate bill could derail Planned Parenthood abortions By CINDY V. CULP Tribune-Herald staff writer Planned Parenthood affiliates across the state, including one in Waco, would be forced to either stop providing abortions or forgo state funding under a provision in the Senate's budget proposal. The provision, known as Rider 11, mandates that the Texas Department of Health not give any funds to family planning organizations that provide abortion services. Since state law already prohibits taxpayer money from being used for abortion-related activities, the money the agencies would lose are funds used to pay for other reproductive health services for men and women. Pam Smallwood, executive director of Planned Parenthood of Central Texas, said that if her agency loses the $700,000 it currently receives from the state, it could spell the end of the organization's women's health clinic in Waco. The clinic treats about 6,000 women each year, 98 percent of whom are at or below the poverty line, she said. Pam Smallwood, executive director of Planned Parenthood of Central Texas, said that if her agency loses the $700,000 it currently receives from the state, it could spell the end of the organization's women's health clinic in Waco. The clinic treats about 6,000 women each year, 98 percent of whom are at or below the poverty line, she said. "You can't provide free medical care for 6,000 women unless someone is going to pay for it," Smallwood said. "If (state legislators) take away the Texas Department of Health funding, this clinic that has been here since 1939 may not be." The reason the local Planned Parenthood affiliate stands to lose funding is because it performs chemical and surgical abortions at its Audre Rapoport Women's Health Center, located at 1927 Columbus Ave. Even though that clinic is completely separate from the agency's Mary Ruth Duncan Women's Health Center at 1121 Ross Ave., which does not perform abortions, the provision would still apply since the organization runs both. Smallwood said the absurdity of the provision is that although it aims to limit abortions, it would likely cause more of them. If 6,000 area women no longer receive health services such as medical exams and birth control pills, the logical result is that many of them will get pregnant, she said. Some of those women will inevitably choose to have an abortion, Smallwood said. And the majority of the rest will have babies on the government's funds, since they would be eligible for Medicaid services, she said. Smallwood questioned why the state would want to spend the $6,000 it costs the government for the first year of a child's life with a Medicaid birth, versus the $185 it costs for women to get a complete medical exam, lab work and birth control. "The cost savings is a no-brainer," Smallwood said. "It's the old argument that prevention costs so much less." Smallwood said some people might assume that if Planned Parenthood clinics lose funding, their clients could continue to receive free family planning services through Medicaid. But that's not true, she said, noting that only 5 percent of clients treated at the Ross Street clinic would qualify for family planning services through Medicaid. The rest of the women fall into a category where their income is too high for Medicaid family planning services but at or below the poverty level, Smallwood said. The only time most of them would qualify for Medicaid is after they become pregnant, since pregnancy triggers higher income eligibility levels, she said. But supporters of the provision - which was introduced by Sens. Tommy Williams, R-The Woodlands, and Steve Ogden, R-Bryan, - said Planned Parenthood's arguments are false. The money the organization's 12 clinics in Texas receive would simply be shifted to different providers, said Kayleen Wright, president of the Texas Coalition for Life. County health districts, charities or other medical groups could pick up the slack, she said. "I think for the kind of money that is there, plenty of players would step up to the plate," Wright said. Joe Pojman, executive director of Texas Alliance for Life, said his group is supporting the provision because it would end the possibility of state money being co-mingled with private Planned Parenthood funds and used indirectly to fund abortions. He said there is public support for the idea, pointing to a 2001 Scripps Howard Texas poll that found 69 percent of adult Texans opposed the idea of the state paying for abortions. "We just don't have the assurance that there is a true separation between the abortion funds and the family planning funds," Pojman said. "If (Planned Parenthood) would just get out of the abortion business, there won't be a problem." Smallwood disputed Pojman's contention, saying Planned Parenthood is careful to comply with the law, going so far as to have different accounting systems and bank accounts for the two clinics. She also said the agency is audited each year by both the Texas Department of Health and an independent auditor. "If folks don't believe an independent auditor, I don't know what more you can do," Smallwood said. Supporters of the provision say Planned Parenthood could continue receiving state money if it stopped providing abortions, but Smallwood said such a choice is against the agency's mission of offering a full range of reproductive services. However, if the bill passes, it is something the agency will have to consider, she said. Across the state, seven Planned Parenthood clinics do not offer abortions, said Heather Paffe, political director for the Texas Association of Planned Parenthood Affiliates. That leaves five that would be affected by the budget provision. If the provision passes, those five clinics would lose about $13 million, affecting about 110,000 patients, Paffe said. She said the idea that so many women could lose health care services is especially troubling, since only 2.3 percent of the services offered by Planned Parenthood in Texas last year dealt with pregnancy termination. Whether the provision will become part of the final budget is anybody's guess, both supporters and those opposed to it said. Members of the House-Senate conference committee are scheduled to debate the rider this week as they work out differences between the budgets from the two chambers.
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