Initial estimates of the amount of taxpayer funds the Planned Parenthood abortion business in Texas stands to lose for a bill Gov. Rick Perry signed were in the $30-40 million range. Now, one pro-life group says that number could be as high as $64 million.
“The final version of the state’s budget bill and the subsequent agency adjustments yielded $64.2 million reallocated away from the abortion industry,” says Texas Right to Life director Elizabeth Graham. “In Texas, Planned Parenthood has been dealt the greatest defeat in their 95-year history by Texas Right to Life and several heroic Pro-Life Texas state legislators.”
“In the State House, all eight of Texas Right to Life’s amendments to redirect family planning funds away from the abortion industry passed overwhelmingly (the highest vote total the pro-abortion opposition could garner was 40 of the 150 House members),” she explained. “The final amendment earned 113 votes to snatch the last $9 million.”
Although Graham says federal law prohibits further reductions, she says Texas state legislators ultimately cut out 37 percent of the Planned Parenthood funding the abortion business gets in Texas — in what she says will be a “blow” that “will severely hamstring the Texas abortion industry.”
Graham applauded State Senator Tommy Williams, a Republican from The Woodlands, who implemented the second phase of our two-prong strategy to incapacitate the abortion giant. he successfully added a rider “to establish a priority so that entities and agencies not involved in abortion are to be the top priority for family planning grants and contracts.”
“Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers would only qualify under the last priority, meaning that little or no family planning funds would be left for them after the other “clean” contracts have been awarded,” the TRTL director says.
“This removal of over $64 million of our Texas tax dollars marks the culmination of five years of work by Texas Right to Life’s legislative team and interns. We identified the funding streams, studied the rules, sought legal counsel about state compliance with federal laws, and obtained a copy of the state’s family planning budget,” Graham concludes. “The 82nd Texas Legislative session brought historic Pro-Life victories to Texan women, unborn children, and families.”
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