West Texas has been Planned Parenthood-free since 2013. Pro-Life activists in Midland and San Angelo worked for years to provide women with legitimate health care options and shutter the abortion giant Planned Parenthood. After those dedicated efforts by local Pro-Lifers, Planned Parenthood shuttered both locations and has not reopened in the region. That could change in the coming year. The Dallas Morning News reports that an anonymous donor has promised $9 million earmarked for Planned Parenthood clinics in West Texas.
The exact location and timetable of construction has not been released. In addition to the $9 million, the Dallas Morning News reports Planned Parenthood will receive another $800,000 from a separate donor. There are currently 35 Planned Parenthood clinics in Texas, six of which commit abortions. Planned Parenthood has not yet said if the proposed facilities will commit abortions.
According to the abortion lobby, the lack of Planned Parenthood facilities in Midland, San Angelo, and the surrounding area is a tragedy created by strong Pro-Life laws. Anti-Life pundits blame the 2013 Pro-Life Omnibus Bill, HB 2, for the closures of Planned Parenthood clinics in West Texas. However, Texas did not force the substandard facilities to close. The fact of the matter is that Planned Parenthood refused to conform to commonsense health and safety measures, choosing to consolidate business into large state-of-the-art facilities clustered in urban areas.
Anti-Life commentators also claim that when Pro-Life Texas legislators in 2011 redirected millions of tax dollars away from the abortion industry and barred those that commit abortions from receiving fungible tax dollars through family planning programs, they forced the closure of rural Planned Parenthood health clinics. The blow to Planned Parenthood can hardly be said to have negatively affected women’s health. Data show that the rate of unintended pregnancies appears to have decreased as did the rate of abortions throughout Texas since 2011. Texas women have not been left without alternatives to the abortion businesses that chose to cease caring for patients through government programs. In recent years, Texans have made women’s health a priority, creating and continually expanding the Healthy Texas Women Program and the Texas Pregnancy Care Network. The abortion providers who no longer receive taxpayer dollars for women’s health services could choose to stop committing abortions and become legitimate health care providers. In the meantime, Texas legislators have ensured that women have access to high quality care.
The closure of West Texas Planned Parenthoods does not mean that Pro-Life Texas laws are too harsh, as so many anti-Life media claim. The organizations that refuse to give up lucrative abortion business, like Planned Parenthood, have excluded themselves from state programs and concentrated high volume abortion mills in urban areas. Planned Parenthood has made no secret of the fact that Texas is the target of a concerted effort to attack the Pro-Life movement. The recent influx of hefty anonymous donations underscores how serious anti-Life activists are about undermining the Pro-Life culture of Texas. The recent lavish donations for expanding Planned Parenthood abortion business in Texas came as part of an event with a keynote address from anti-Life Cynthia Nixon, Sex and the City actress turned candidate for New York Governor. This is more than just coincidence. The failed policies of anti-Life outsiders have no place in Texas, and Planned Parenthood should look elsewhere to set up shop.