March 16, 2012

War On Women Update: Rick Perry's Texas Skirmish

So. Texas Governor Rick Perry decided to remove Planned Parenthood from Texas's Medicaid-funded Women’s Health Program (WHP) providers because three percent of Planned Parenthood's services are abortion. Because the governor of a state doesn't get to choose which doctor a woman sees (i.e. gives Medicaid dollars to), the federal government, which supplies 90% of Texas' WHP funding, then properly cut off Texas's federal funding for its WHP (via a rule regarding Medicaid accessibility that's been in place since W Bush). Did I miss anything there?

Medicaid’s Women Health Program gives Medicaid reproductive health coverage to women who aren't poor enough for the rest of Medicaid, basically. Texas's WHP provided services to around 130,000 women. Perry threw those women under the bus to make some anti-abortion point. Right?

So, to recap: Rick Perry violated federal law and caused a problem with Texas's WHP funding. Perry then tweeted, “Obama Admin ends #WHP via media conference call; @GovernorPerry pledges state will keep pgm going.” Other than the fact that "admin" is not a proper noun deserving capitalization, did I miss anything else?

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