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Cuts led to Texas family planning clinics closing
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - A Democratic lawmaker says she has evidence that state budget cuts led to 57 percent of the family planning clinics in Texas shutting down.
Houston Rep. Jessica Farrar said Monday she received the data on the clinics from the Texas Health and Human Services Commission.
Texas had 281 family planning clinics operating in 2011, but after the Republican-controlled Legislature slashed funding for programs that provided contraception to poor women, 182 clinics shut their doors.
The Legislature cut $73 million in the 2012-2013 budget. But Health and Human Services Commissioner Kyle Janek testified last week that the cuts led to 11,000 unintended pregnancies among poor women. Those pregnancies cost the state's Medicaid program $103 million and $108 million.
Farrar is calling on the Legislature to restore funding for family planning.
(Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
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