Funding Slashed for Family Planning

September 1, 2011 was a nerve wrecking day for a great number of people in Texas, not only because of the bills that were being proposed and waiting to be passed law on that day, but because some where already set to take effect on that particular day. Like the Family Planning Funding that was slashed by two thirds for women who take birth control or would like to have a cancer screening. The article on The Texas Tribune "Day 15: Texas Family Planning Funding Slashed" explains how Planned Parenthood use to get funded by the Texas state to provide free or cheap birth control, STD check ups, breast and cervical cancer exams, wellness exams for both men and women, and more to young girls up to the age of 21 and even beyond that if they qualified due to low income. Now, however, any woman that would like to continue taking birth control has two options, which are to pay cash on the spot for her needs of contraceptives or to apply for The Women's Health Program ran by Medicaid. Medicaid is now the only source of funding some lucky young girls have. With all that the government still isn't satisfied and wish to soon remove The Women's Health Program to be used for those purposes. The article goes in to detail as to exactly how much money was slashed from them. This article is definitely worth reading not just because of the budget cut off the state has made towards Planned Parenthood, but because of consequences that have already resulted from this, like the loss of employment of nurses and less working hours. Now with all those young girls that will be going without birth control it is led to assume that there will be 20,500 additional unwanted births. My worries are if they didn't have enough money for birth control itself they probably will ask for Government Support later when their child is born such as WIC and Food Stamps. Will that come out of my pocket? Yes, is the answer so that is why this article is definitely worth reading.