Women's health advocates split on Obama budget
President Obama's proposed budget could mean a drop in teen pregnancy rates and a slight boon for family planning funding, but that doesn't mean local reproductive health advocates are declaring victory.
"Overall, we applaud what he's done," said Blanca Cavazos, the chief executive officer of Planned Parenthood of Cameron and Willacy counties. "But we are also disappointed because he missed some valuable opportunities for women's health."
The new budget would provide a $10 million increase in the Title X program, a federal source of free family planning health care for women at or below the poverty line. Women's health advocates had hoped for hundreds of millions to be added to this program.
"It's a drop in the bucket," Cavazos said.
At Planned Parenthood's two Brownsville clinics, Cavazos says, many clients qualify for Title X funds but the clinic can only provide services for about 83 percent of them.
The budget also would end funding for abstinence-only educational programs, and instead invest $178 million in evidence-based comprehensive sex education programs that are proven to reduce teen pregnancy, and innovative new programs.
Cavazos hopes the provision will provide a window to re-establish relationships with local school districts and decrease Brownsville's teen pregnancy rates.
"The school board cares about our children's education. I know that they cannot ignore the fact that Brownsville has a teen pregnancy problem," Cavazos said. "It's no longer just in the high schools; now, it's in the middle schools, as well."
Brownsville public high schools currently receive funding to teach an abstinence-based curriculum, but that wasn't always the case.
Parents who went through the school system might think their children are receiving the same comprehensive information about contraception that they did. Cavazos worries that might mean they aren't supplementing the abstinence-based curriculum with conversations at home.
"I'm not sure parents understand what's excluded from abstinence education," Cavazos said. "Kids are receiving their information on sex from their friends, television and movies. But we need to provide them with factual information in an atmosphere where they can feel comfortable asking the questions that impact their lives."
Every 10 minutes a Texas teenager becomes pregnant, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services.
Meanwhile, the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health is expressing disappointment in Obama's decision to maintain the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits states from using tax dollars to fund abortions except in cases of rape, incest, or endangerment to the woman's life.
"This directly impacts women on Medicaid, " said Jessica Gonzalez-Rojas, the institute's deputy director. "About 25 percent of women on Medicaid of reproductive age are Latina, even though they make up only 15 percent of the U.S. population. So this is disproportionately impacting Latina women."
About 1.98 million Latina women are on Medicaid, Rojas said.
"Women who need the funding the most, because they cannot afford to have another child, are the ones being denied the help," she said. "I think we have to think about the times - we're in a bad economy. The more barriers we create to abortion, the more likely women will be to try self-induction."
Self-induction is common in Brownsville, according to local abortion clinics, which say as many as 40 percent of their patients have tried to have abortions at home before coming to the clinic.
Although Obama plans to limit federal funding of abortion, pro-life groups remain displeased with his budget, since he proposed to repeal a provision that prohibited abortion funding in Washington, D.C., and eliminated funding for abstinence-only education.
"We are very disappointed to see that he had completely zeroed out all funding for abstinence only education," said Karen Garnett, the executive director at the Catholic Pro-Life Committee of Dallas. "This funding will increase pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases because of contraceptive failure."
The ongoing tension between pro-life and pro-choice groups concerns Cavazos, of Planned Parenthood, but she says she sees the dialogue as an educational opportunity.
"We need to have these conversations," she said. "Teenagers are having sex and we have to help them make the responsible choices that will help them to grow up into successful adults."
