Women’s Health in Texas

For the final project, I’m teaming up with Katie Dudley on a multimedia reporting project that will examine how dropping Planned Parenthood from the Texas Women’s Health Program has affected preventive services for women in Texas.

The state legislature passed a law in 2011 excluding organizations affiliated with abortion providers from getting funding through the Medicaid Women’s Health Program. In response, the federal government pulled its share–about 90 percent–of funding from the state’s program.

Critics of the law, like Reproductive Health Reality Check reporter Andrea Grimes, say that without Planned Parenthood, Texas women who qualify for Medicaid are left with very few options for preventive care like pap smears and breast exams.

Critics worried the implementation and enforcement of this law would lead to fewer women getting vital preventive care services.  We will investigate to see if that’s indeed what’s happening.

In terms of data, we will compare the number of women receiving services and/or number of claims before and after Planned Parenthood was dropped. Texas Health and Human Services released some preliminary numbers that showed the number of claims paid under the Texas Women’s Health Program dropped by a little over 5 percent in January 2013 compared to January 2012. We will likely look for necessary data from the department as well as the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

We will also talk to representatives from Planned Parenthood, Health and Human Services and some of the organizers of the public hearing the Department of State Health Services hosted in September 2012. Our project will include video interviews with some of those representatives and potentially vox pop interviews with Austinites on each side of the issue.