NARAL Pro-Choice Texas : News : Press Releases

12/1/11 12:45 PM

THE TEXAS PREGNANCY CARE NETWORK: A TAXPAYER-FUNDED FAILURE

Modified: 04/20/2011

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Wednesday, April 20, 2011 New report by NARAL Pro-Choice Texas Foundation reveals the Texas Pregnancy Care Networks failure to meet self-identified goals, violation of federal standards, wasteful spending and lack of oversight. Austin, TX - On Wednesday, April 20, NARAL Pro-Choice Texas Foundation (NPCT Foundation) released the report The Texas Alternatives to Abortion Program: Bad Health Policy, Bad Fiscal Policy . This is NPCT Foundations sixth annual report tracking the Texas Alternatives to Abortion program and its contractor, the Texas Pregnancy Care Network (TPCN). This report continues ongoing coverage of the wastefulness and ineffectiveness of the TPCN particularly its failure to provide meaningful, evidence-based results to Texas taxpayers and to the Texas women it is intended to serve. The Alternatives to Abortion program funnels significant funding away from comprehensive womens health and family planning services and into pre-existing unlicensed, unregulated volunteer-based counseling centers with no confidentiality requirements and minimal oversight. The report demonstrates that: The money that was allocated to the Alternatives to Abortion program could have served seven times more women through programs such as the Medicaid Womens Health Program which helps prevent unintended pregnancy (and therefore the need for abortion) through the provision of birth control, and also provides comprehensive health services. Granting $18 million to the Alternatives to Abortion program instead of womens health care has cost Texas as much as $162 million in federal matching grants. Crisis pregnancy centers make up 70% of TPCN service providers. These facilities are unlicensed, nonmedical counseling centers with no confidentiality requirements and minimal oversight. Visits to taxpayer-funded crisis pregnancy centers in Texas have revealed repeated violations of federal law. This report details how, at a cost of millions of tax dollars, the TPCN creates no new services while directing funds away from efficient, effective womens health services. The report recommends that instead of sinking millions of womens health dollars into inefficient programming, the state would do well to invest in streamlined programs that have proven to be successful and effective at providing health care and support for Texas women and families. For more information please visit http://www.prochoicetexas.org/. Contact: Sara S. Cleveland 512-462-1661 ###

NARAL Pro-Choice Texas

http://www.prochoicetexas.org/news/press/201104231.shtml

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