Budget amendment could close Planned Parenthood in the RGV

Brownsville's chapter of Planned Parenthood may be in peril, according to clinic representatives.

If the Texas Senate Finance Committee votes "yes" on Senate budget rider 56 today, the proposed budgetary amendment could prevent family planning clinics that don't offer primary care from receiving government funding.

That means Hidalgo, Starr, Cameron and Willacy counties' Planned Parenthood locations would be among 76 of the organization's clinics at risk of closing statewide. More than 40 other Texas family planning providers not affiliated with Planned Parenthood would also be at risk. In the four Valley counties there are nine Planned Parenthood freestanding clinics and four satellite clinics.

"We won't be able to stay open if this passes," said Terri Lievanos, executive director of Brownsville's Planned Parenthood.

Rider 56 passed the Senate Finance Committee's work group on health and human services on Wednesday. If the rider passes the Texas Senate Finance Committee today, the Texas Department of State Health Services' $50 million of family planning funding would only be available to federally qualified health centers and city and county health departments.

Lievanos says that because these organizations don't specialize in family planning, they can't provide the fast, targeted care that Planned Parenthood clients enjoy.

"Our clients tell us that if they go to a federally qualified health center for a Pap smear, it can take eight months to get an appointment," Lievanos said. "We can get you an appointment in two or three days."

Sen. Tommy Williams, R-The Woodlands, the author of the rider, did not return inquiries into his objective for creating the rider. Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr., D-Brownsville, said he did not wish to speculate on Williams' reasons for authoring the rider, but that he is "concerned with how the rider would affect women's family planning services."

About 250,000 Texans receive publicly funded family planning services, according to Planned Parenthood. These include pap smears, contraceptives, cancer screenings and diabetes testing. Half of these individuals receive care from providers or clinics that would no longer have access to federal funding if the rider were passed.

Lucio was the sole member of the work group to oppose the rider.