What Happens When Texas Blocks Planned Parenthood? Abortions Rise. [unintended consequences]

Austin Chronicle ^ | July 12, 2017 | Mary Tuma

[grundle]

Study: Lege's family planning cuts led to an increase in abortion

With the goal of eliminating abortion, Texas Republicans have stripped Planned Parenthood of funding and steadily obstructed patient access to care over the past few years. Turns out, their ideological, anti-choice crusade is having the opposite effect. A new study shows abortion rates have jumped since Planned Parenthood was blocked.

While at Texas A&M University, economics professor Analisa Packham found that when the Texas Legislature cut family planning funding by two-thirds, or $76 million, in 2011 and simultaneously defunded Planned Parenthood, teen abortions increased 3.1% in the following three years while teen births spiked by 3.4% in the following four years.

The budget cuts not only hit Planned Parenthood but shuttered a total of more than 80 family planning clinics altogether, impeding access to preventive women’s health care and low-cost contraception, a direct reason for unintended pregnancies, especially among teens. “Although the primary stated objective of the funding cuts was to decrease abortion incidents, I find little evidence that reducing family planning funding achieved this goal,” Packham sharply concludes.

Packham reports that 2,200 teens would not have given birth if the Legislature hadn’t cut family planning, slowing the overall progress of a decreasing birth rate. With an average taxpayer cost of $27,000 per birth, the price tag of the cuts total an estimated $80 million, outweighing the funds saved by the drastic cuts – a figure self-avowed fiscal conservative Republicans may want to heed. Other research bolsters Packham’s work: Last year, the UT-based Texas Policy Evaluation Project found that in East Texas’ Gregg County, abortion rose by a whopping 191% in the two years after the county lost 60% of its family planning funding. Similar results appeared in neighboring counties.

"Planned Parenthood clinics are often the best-equipped to offer the right contraceptive choices and have better continuation rates for patients, which leads to a decrease in unintended pregnancies and abortion," Kami Geoffray, CEO of the Women's Health and Family Planning Association of Texas, tells the Chronicle. After Texas saw a 50% drop in clients receiving Title X funds for family planning services following the 2011 cuts, the Obama-era federal government bypassed the state in 2013, granting Geoffray's organization millions directly to dole out to 100 clinics statewide. "Since implementation of exclusion policies and tiered funding began in 2011, several studies have documented disruptions to the family planning provider network and resulting negative health outcomes for Texas women and families – from an increase in Medicaid births to maternal mortality – further highlighting the critical role Planned Parenthood plays in the family planning safety net."

The study comes less than a week before the Texas Legislature is expected to reconvene on July 18 for a special session with plans to further destroy access to reproductive health care and target Planned Parenthood. Gov. Greg Abbott has included a slew of anti-choice measures in his ambitious 20-point agenda, including a ban on private abortion insurance coverage and preventing local governments from allocating any tax dollars to abortion providers or affiliates. Even with evidence showing their politically motivated goals aren’t being met, it’s a safe bet anti-choice lawmakers will continue to wreak havoc on health care, facts be damned.

[grundle]

This is a great lesson in "unintended consequences."

[P-Marlowe]

I call BS.

[M-cubed]

I guess they didnt need our money after all......they must be paying out of pocket for their personal choices.....

[Rurudyne]

Yep. So defund PP and anything like it to the nines.

Actually, just cut them off no matter what.

[AndyTheBear]

I like to keep an open mind, but feel dubious of this research. At least superficially it has the scent of activist junk science.

[T Ruth]

Texas A&M University, economics professor

Low credibility source.

[JTHomes]

Seems like the increase is slower than the population increase over the same period. And teen births increased more than abortions, so perhaps a less babies were killed.

[SamuraiScot]

teen abortions increased 3.1% in the following three years while teen births spiked by 3.4% in the following four years.

I feel sure this study was conducted according to the most stringent scientific protocols, isolating the variables perfectly so that there were no viable alternative hypotheses for an statistically insignificant rise in abortions and births--other than that these bad things occurred because Planned Parenthood was cheated out of its fees--which were to be taxed from Texas citizens--for passing out human pesticides to underage girls and encouraging them to grow up to be trollops.

Have I translated correctly?

[gibsonguy]

Hard to trust anything coming out of Austin, the a-hole of Texas.

[Da Coyote]

Mainstream press.

Ergo, fake.

Period.

[hinckley buzzard]

This is an artifact of the necessity to cut funds across the board rather than targeting PP. The courts would not allow that. The cut in contraception was a byproduct of the cut to curtail abortions. Whether it is counter productive in the long run is highly questionable. People can learn to find their contraceptives elsewhere, but it takes time. Once they do, the abortion rate will drop back down.

[TADSLOS]

The study comes less than a week before the Texas Legislature is expected to reconvene on July 18 for a special session with plans to further destroy access to reproductive health care and target Planned Parenthood. Gov. Greg Abbott has included a slew of anti-choice measures in his ambitious 20-point agenda, including a ban on private abortion insurance coverage and preventing local governments from allocating any tax dollars to abortion providers or affiliates.

Awesome. V for Victory!

..._ ✌🏻️

[DiogenesLamp]

A new study shows abortion rates have jumped since Planned Parenthood was blocked.

Years ago when I was taking Comp 1, we had to grade each others essays. This one fellow had written an essay, the premise of which was that Capitol Punishment didn't stop Death row inmates from murdering again.

It was stone cold stupid, both in it's premise and it's arguments. This bit of tripe from the Austin Cronicle is the same sort of brain dead stupid.

It turns reason on it's head by arguing that preventing something causes more of it.

Bullsh*t.

[Viking2002]

"In a related study, sales of coat hangers have risen 37%....."

A lamestream rag in Austin, the Left-wing armpit of Texas. I call BS on it before I even read the article. Which I won't.

[dangus]

It’s a great lesson in B.S. 3% is likely LESS than the growth in Texas’ population.

[shibumi]

"This is a great lesson in "unintended consequences."

So is this you coming out *again* in favor of legalized
abortion the same way you have done previously, right here?

http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/3544327/posts?page=20#20

Careful now - Your Libertarian lunacy (and amorality) is showing.

[dangus]

Double-checked: Yup... 3% is less than half of Texas’ 6.9% population growth.

[TheZMan]

There will always be abortions. What needed to stop was US PAYING FOR THEM. Glad I could clarify.

Don’t accept the premise. If someone wants to incur the penalties of an abortion, that’s their problem - not mine.

[Mark17]

Yep, fake news.

[ChildOfThe60s]

isolating the variables perfectly

Hmm, that doesn't sound very inclusive LOL