Monday, March 04, 2013

In anti-abortion zeal Texas Republicans cut funds to family planning clinics, now scrambling to replace funding with realization those cuts may result in 24,000 additional births at a cost to taxpayers of 273 million.

Courtesy of the New York Times:  

The fight to restore family-planning financing that was cut from the Texas budget in the last legislative session has taken a turn toward primary care. Republican state senators have proposed adding $100 million to a state-run primary care program specifically for women’s health services, an effort that could help avoid a political fight over subsidizing specialty family-planning clinics. 

“It’s a much better way to treat the women because they don’t just have family-planning issues,” said Senator Robert Deuell, Republican of Greenville, a family physician who has advocated an increase in primary-care services for women. 

Using taxpayer dollars to finance family-planning services has become politically thorny in Texas, largely because of Republican lawmakers’ assertions that the women’s health clinics providing that care are affiliated with abortion providers. In the fiscal crunch of 2011, the Legislature cut the state’s family-planning budget by two-thirds, with some lawmakers claiming that they were defunding the “abortion industry.” Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin, found that more than 50 family-planning clinics had closed statewide as a result. 

Now, amid estimates that the cuts could lead to 24,000 additional 2014-15 births at a cost to taxpayers of $273 million, lawmakers are seeking a way to restore financing without ruffling feathers.

Oops, I guess perhaps Texas Republicans did not realize that the cost of allowing every possible human life to be born was so damn costly.

“There’s an advantage to guiding that money to the family planning, that preventive care piece, because that’s where the cost savings occur,” said Janet Realini, leader of the Texas Women’s Healthcare Coalition.

Yeah no kidding.

Of course Planned Parenthood could have told them that, except Texas cut funding to them, which is essentially what drove many of these clinics out of business.

Thankfully there may be some help coming to Texas through Obamacare. That will provide funding for family planning services and access to contraception, which clearly Texas is in dire need of receiving.

What's that you say? The Governor of Texas, Rick Perry, has rejected the Affordable Care Act?

Well fuck Texas then. Ya'll are just reaping what you done sowed.

Gee I wonder how many of those 24,000 births are to people whose skin might be less than lily white, and who are predisposed to vote Democratic? It is quite possible that decisions like this might hasten Texas's emergence as a solidly blue state much earlier than previously predicted.

Good job shit kickers!

17 comments:

  1. Anonymous7:24 AM

    I would post something intelligent here, but I have so little regard for the state of Tea-texas that I don't even think they deserve a response.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, and it's tea for Texas, and it's tea for Timbuktu; and it's “tea" for New York City, where tha' li'l girls know what to do--All New Minglewood Blues

      Delete
  2. Anonymous7:51 AM

    As Rick Perry would say, "Oops".

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  3. This is totally O/T, Jesse, but I knew you would like it. It's right up your atheistic alley...in a non-annoying way (Sorry, couldn't resist).

    https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=383466811752132&set=vb.136336876521150&type=2&theater

    ReplyDelete
  4. Sally in MI9:20 AM

    Another gross miscalculation by the GOP. Just what did they think would happen when they took away contraception? More fundie white babies? Rich white women (even Catholics) have always had access to abortion and contraception. It's poor whites and minorities who struggle when they can't get health sevices. I would say it serves them right, but all those kids are going to need food, shelter and education, none of which Texas plans to provide for them.

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  5. Anonymous9:25 AM

    Life Happens right Texas? I hope all those 24,000 baby mama's sue you for alimony for blocking their access to full healthcare.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous9:58 AM

    Well no Sh*##, as we used to say in Texas. By they way, you Texas Haters, next national election, the state may very well be BLUE! I just might move back then.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. BabyRaptor10:14 AM

      Never moving back. The state might go blue for one election, but that won't mean all the fundies will have magically disappeared. It'll just mean that a lot pf people decided to vote Democrat in a Presidential election.

      And voting blue for a Presidential election doesn't mean much. Democrats largely don't vote in other elections, so it would be wise to wait a bit and see if the state REALLY goes blue before committing to go skipping back.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous1:53 PM

      I live in red Tennessee. I own property in Texas as well, PLUS my grandchildren are there! I doubt I will go skipping back, but eventually I will live at least half my time there.

      Delete
  7. Anonymous11:09 AM

    The Bible miniseries: History Channel's take on the Bible not for kids

    The Bible miniseries produced by the History Channel is a disappointment for any family hoping for a new way to share the Bible's stories with their children. The Bible miniseries, not altogether surprising given the History Channel's relentless ratings focus, sensationalizes the Bible's stories. Angel ninjas? Really?

    The History Channel series created by Mark Burnett and his wife, "Touched By An Angel" star Roma Downey, appears to have gone for the ratings with graphic blood-and-gorey smiting, special effects, and black and red clad “angels” that bear more of a resemblance to the Vulturi clan of vampires in the "Twilight" films than anything I ever pictured as a child.

    In the Hollywood Reporter review of "The Bible" miniseries the critic writes, “Sometimes it stays true to scripture, but then does things like adds angels with ninja skills to spice things up. That's one thing the Bible itself really doesn't need — it's a complex and lyrical work full of prophecies and call-backs and a sense of being one, organic, intertwined story. Unfortunately, "The Bible" is fractious and overwrought.”

    http://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Family/Modern-Parenthood/2013/0304/The-Bible-miniseries-History-Channel-s-take-on-the-Bible-not-for-kids

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous11:14 AM

    History Channel's 'The Bible' Blew It, Says Bible Scholar Dr. Joel M. Hoffman

    The History Channel's miniseries "The Bible" distorts the Bible's original spirit, and does a disservice both to history and to the Bible, according to Bible scholar Dr. Joel M. Hoffman. The problem, he says, is that only some Bible stories were originally intended as history, while others, including most of Genesis, were meant to be fiction. "The Bible," the first episode of which aired Sunday night, wrongly "paints the Bible with a single brush," Hoffman claims. Hoffman's analysis and review appear in a Huffington Post piece entitled "The Bible Isn't The History You Think It Is."

    Hoffman's point isn't that only some of the Bible's stories happened (though he writes that that's "almost certainly true"), but rather that the Bible itself portrays the stories differently, "only presenting some of them as having happened." He compares the case to a newspaper, with its news, opinion, analysis, comics, etc. "The news can be accurate," he writes, "even if the comics are not. The same is true for the different parts of the Bible."

    Hoffman argues that "The Bible" miniseries is like a combination of "a newspaper's news with its comics."

    http://finance.yahoo.com/news/history-channels-bible-blew-says-171100055.html

    Review: History's 'The Bible' an epic, epically overwrought, tale

    History channel's new 10-episode miniseries 'The Bible' is a good-looking, Westernized production but it's also often tiresome.

    http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/showtracker/la-et-st-history-the-bible-review-20130302,0,3996253.story

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  9. It's hard to imagine there are people in state legislatures all over the land who make Sarah Palin seem really smart.

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  10. Anonymous3:07 PM

    I've been warning those southern whities for months now that taking away all options for women is going to make the minority colored peoples' populations grow. Latinos have 5 times the birth rate as it is now vs caucasians. Now that the whities can't adopt Russian kids they're gonna have to find some other skin color babies. tsk tsk tsk

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  11. Anonymous4:18 PM

    Actions have consequences.

    PMom_GA

    ReplyDelete
  12. Anita Winecooler5:23 PM

    They're a little "slow". What took them so long to do the math? The Clampetts were ahead of their time! They struck oil and hightailed it out of Texas.

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  13. Anonymous6:18 AM

    But..but..but.. Rand Paul says you can't save money by spending money!!!

    ReplyDelete

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