Lege Finds Even More Funds for Anti-Choice Grifters

[TexasTowelie]

Alternatives to Abortion program gets $100M in House budget


While shooting down amendments that could have expanded health care for struggling low-income Texans and helped victims of human trafficking, Texas House members approved a record-breaking $100 million for the state’s Alternatives to Abortion Program (A2A), which includes a network of non-medical, faith-based crisis pregnancy centers.

During a marathon hearing on Thursday, April 22, the House debate over the state’s proposed $246 billion two-year budget included decisions to ban school vouchers, restrict some funding to the office of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, and transfer the governor’s Texas Enterprise Fund to property tax relief.

For reproductive health advocates, a major focus is the robust – and misplaced – investment in the A2A program, which has seen a staggering increase in funding since its inception, even as lawmakers, reporters, and watchdog groups have exposed its lack of transparency and accountability, wasteful spending, and dispensing of medical misinformation and religious proselytizing with the intention to stigmatize abortion care. Addressing the “secretive” nature of the A2A contract process, Rep. Bobby Guerra, D-McAllen, offered an amendment during the floor debate that would have forced the program to face the same transparency requirements as other health contracts; however, it was withdrawn.

The program, which is theoretically overseen by the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, started with $2.4 million in 2006, steadily rose to $80 million in 2020-2021, and now may see $100 million in funding for the next two years. What are they doing with all this money? While Republican lawmakers on the House floor pointed to crisis pregnancy centers’ ostensibly prolific services (like parenting and childbirth classes), HHSC documents show the majority of state funding goes toward “counseling,” which includes conversations to dissuade women from seeking abortion, as the Chronicle has previously reported.

Read more: https://www.austinchronicle.com/daily/news/2021-04-23/lege-finds-even-more-funds-for-anti-choice-grifters/