Planned Parenthood Not the Only Casualty in Texas Defunding

Jan. 10, 2013— -- Rachel Landon says she doesn't make much money as an actor, but she's been able to get birth control, gynecological exams and other health screenings at her local Planned Parenthood in Houston as part of the Women's Health Program, which provides care for low-income women.

Now, though she'll either have to leave the program or find a new doctor because Texas no longer wants to allow tax dollars to go toward clinics affiliated with abortion providers or advocates.

"These people trying to shut this down never met me, never met any of these other women," Landon, 29, told ABCNews.com. She said that since it's difficult to find a doctor she trusts, she stuck with Planned Parenthood after starting to go there in college. "Losing that not only hurts me financially, but it hurts me as a Texan on a personal level."

Planned Parenthood will face a judge on Friday in Texas, trying to overturn a massive defunding of the family planning nonprofit in the state. They say they're not the only ones suffering. Women like Landon are left scrambling for new doctors, and even non-Planned Parenthood clinics find themselves at a crossroads.

When Texas Gov. Rick Perry announced his "Initiatives to Protect Life" on Dec. 11 in Houston, he said there was a difference between women's health and protecting the rights of abortion providers. He said state legislators were obligated to make every day of the upcoming 140-day session count toward protecting Texas' "most vulnerable citizens."

"The ideal world is a world without abortion," Perry said, calling for the Supreme Court's decision in Roe v. Wade to be overturned. "Until then, however, we will continue to pass laws to ensure abortions are as rare as possible under existing law."

From 2007 through 2012, the Women's Health Program got 90 percent of its funding from Medicare, but that all changed when state lawmakers decided to exclude Planned Parenthood and other clinics affiliated with abortion advocacy.

Federal officials decided the state rule was illegal because it interfered with a woman's right to choose her own doctor. They gave Texans a choice: allow Planned Parenthood to be part of the Women's Health Program or lose federal funding. In response, Texas launched a new Women's Health Program that only uses state funds and excludes Planned Parenthood. The changes went into effect Jan. 1.

"The ignorance, I think, that is so rampant among the legislative community is mind boggling," said Regina Rogoff, the Executive Director of the People's Community Clinic, an independent family planning provider in Austin.

Planned Parenthood performed 333,964 abortions in 2011, amounting to 3 percent of the services the organization offered nationwide that year, according to its annual report, which was released Jan. 4. During the year, it reported it served about 4.5 million people for sexually transmitted disease testing and treatments, 3.4 million people for contraception services, 1.3 million for cancer screening and prevention, and 1.2 million women for pregnancy tests and prenatal care.

"It seems very skewed, the idea that every woman going in there is getting an abortion," Landon said. "That's not what it's about at all."

Rogoff said she once promised herself she would never use the word "family planning," because many such clinics offer full blood panels and other medical help in addition to standard well-woman exams.

"'Family planning' becomes kind of a red herring for people who are upset about abortion," she said.

Rogoff's clinic has not been cut from the state-funded Women's Health Program, but she said she's not sure it will continue to participate because Texas has targeted any organization that might refer a patient to an abortion provider.

"The idea the state is putting a gag order on what physicians can say to a patient is just offensive," she said. "We are sorely tempted to entirely withdraw from this program to avoid giving the appearance that we support it."

But abandoning patients in need would be terrible, Rogoff said, calling her clinic's predicament a "conundrum." Her clinic already lost $526,000 in 2011 because Texas redistributed federal Title X family planning funds, she said.