Texas GOP: ‘Of Course This Is A War On Birth Control’
When asked whether Texas’s anti-family planning efforts were ‘a war on birth control,’ Christian replied, ‘Well of course this is a war on birth control and abortions and everything’:
The goal is to get government money out of the abortion process and if contraceptive services have to suffer a bit of collateral damage in the process, so be it. When The Texas Tribune asked state Rep. Wayne Christian (R-Nacogdoches), a supporter of the family planning cuts, if this was a war on birth control, he said ‘yes.’
‘Well of course this is a war on birth control and abortions and everything, that’s what family planning is supposed to be about,’ Christian said.
Family planning clinics are routinely referred to by many Texas Republican legislators as ‘abortion clinics’ even though none of the 71 family planning clinics in the state that receive government funding provide abortions. Texas and federal law prohibits that, but most women’s health clinics will refer women or teens who want an abortion to a provider.
‘They’re sitting here, referring women out to receive abortions,’ Christian said in an interview with NPR. ‘Those are the clinics, including Planned Parenthood, we were targeting.’
While disturbing, Christian’s honesty is a refreshing change from Republicans’ more common defense that cuts to women’s health care will save money. As NPR notes, the state estimates that 300,000 women will lose access to family planning services because of these cuts, resulting in roughly 20,000 additional unplanned births. ‘Texas already spends $1.3 billion on teen pregnancies — more than any other state.’
