Planned Parenthood in Odessa, TX to Close Down Due to Defunding

ereyes312:

Midland, TX - The Odessa Planned Parenthood office is shutting its doors for good. Without the state funding they depend on, they say they have no other choice. 

State leaders signed a rule yesterday that shuts off funding from the Texas Women’s Health Program to Planned Parenthood or any other abortion provider. As a result, Planned Parenthood of West Texas made the decision to close its Odessa clinic.

The Women’s Health Program is a Medicaid waiver program serving nearly 124,000 Texas women.

“They depend on this for basic needs like birth control, annual exams, cancer screenings,” explains Planned Parenthood of West Texas CEO & President Karen Pieper Hildebrand.

Those services used to be free but as of March 14th patients will be forced to pay out of pocket.

“We still need to find a way to provide those services to women,” says State Senator Kel Seliger.

While state representatives agree that women need affordable health care, they stand strong on the decision not to fund an organization that provides abortions.

“And it doesn’t matter who provides those services but the feeling was that those who provide those services need to provide just those services,” Seliger claims. “It’s really directed at Planned Parenthood.”

“That funding has never been used to fund abortions. It’s not allowed to. Those services come from two completely separate funding pools,” Hildebrand says.

Planned Parenthood is feeling the hit. On March 9th the Odessa Clinic will shut it’s doors for good.

“That site only provides family planning care for the poorest of the poor,” she says.

4,000 women use the clinic, 71% of which rely on the Women’s Health Program.
Planned Parenthood says they fear the states attempt to lower the abortion rate will do just the opposite if women can’t afford preventative methods. 

“Were going to see an increase in unintended pregnancy, abortion rates and STD rates,” she explains. “The reason they’re cutting this funding is just because of political reasons. It is really disastrous for the healthcare of women in Texas.”

Because of the state’s decision to withdraw funding, federal money is also now in jeopardy. The Obama Administration says this move is a deal breaker and could take away the $40 million federal Medicaid program provided to the state

Just to clarify, the Odessa clinic does not offer abortion services.

The Midland clinic will remain open.

One place where you can receive affordable health services is The Ector County Health Department. The department offers routine confidential testing for HIV and STD’s including gonorrhea, Chlamydia and syphilis. All testing is $10 and performed on a walk-in basis.

3 months ago · 19 notes · Source · Reblogged from ereyes312

venetianfemininebitch: ladyatheist: Patricia Heaton, star of ABC Family’s “The Middle”, tells the president to go to a racist ass “pro-life” website on the 39th anniversary of Roe v Wade. Now I have a reason to avoid that show like the plague. My first year at Miami, MU Students for Life invited Pro-Choice Miami to watch  documentary about how abortion is secretly black genocide because Margaret Sanger believed in eugenics. When the film was over, they sat there expecting us to have had an epiphany; expecting me, as the only black member of PCM, to thank them for helping me to see the light. What they got was one of the most vicious verbal attacks I’ve ever dealt out. What people like MUSFL and Patricia Heaton don’t understand is that they don’t need to enlighten blacks about their oppression. They hold no secret knowledge that the poor uneducated black folks just can’t understand. What they have is a lack of knowledge and a lack of respect. White women weren’t the only ones who fought for the right to have an abortion. POC were and remain active leaders in the fight for reproductive justice. By perpetuating the myth of black genocide, you are denying black women their agency when it comes to making decisions about their own body and children. The tagline “The most dangerous place for an African American is in the womb” (seen on billboards touting the idea of black genocide) proves they have no idea about the reality of being black in America. You don’t have to look into womens’ bodies to see the genocide of black youth. Abortion allows black women to make private decisions about their own body and about the fate of their potential children. Who are you to tell a mother (potential or otherwise) about where her fetus which may or may not one day become a child will face danger? If she chooses that a child would be better off not being brought into the world at this time or that she would be better off not bring a child into the world in this time, that is her choice. You know where black mothers don’t get to make choices? On the street where their children are harassed by citizens and police alike, in schools where their children are told their unintelligent, in stores, in prisons, in airports, and, if people like Patricia Heaton had their way, in their own doctor’s offices. [People other than those who identify as women need and get abortions.] Emphasis is mine. Flawless commentary is flawless.

venetianfemininebitch:

ladyatheist:

Patricia Heaton, star of ABC Family’s “The Middle”, tells the president to go to a racist ass “pro-life” website on the 39th anniversary of Roe v Wade. Now I have a reason to avoid that show like the plague.

My first year at Miami, MU Students for Life invited Pro-Choice Miami to watch  documentary about how abortion is secretly black genocide because Margaret Sanger believed in eugenics. When the film was over, they sat there expecting us to have had an epiphany; expecting me, as the only black member of PCM, to thank them for helping me to see the light. What they got was one of the most vicious verbal attacks I’ve ever dealt out.

What people like MUSFL and Patricia Heaton don’t understand is that they don’t need to enlighten blacks about their oppression. They hold no secret knowledge that the poor uneducated black folks just can’t understand. What they have is a lack of knowledge and a lack of respect. White women weren’t the only ones who fought for the right to have an abortion. POC were and remain active leaders in the fight for reproductive justice. By perpetuating the myth of black genocide, you are denying black women their agency when it comes to making decisions about their own body and children. The tagline “The most dangerous place for an African American is in the womb” (seen on billboards touting the idea of black genocide) proves they have no idea about the reality of being black in America. You don’t have to look into womens’ bodies to see the genocide of black youth.

Abortion allows black women to make private decisions about their own body and about the fate of their potential children. Who are you to tell a mother (potential or otherwise) about where her fetus which may or may not one day become a child will face danger? If she chooses that a child would be better off not being brought into the world at this time or that she would be better off not bring a child into the world in this time, that is her choice.

You know where black mothers don’t get to make choices? On the street where their children are harassed by citizens and police alike, in schools where their children are told their unintelligent, in stores, in prisons, in airports, and, if people like Patricia Heaton had their way, in their own doctor’s offices.

[People other than those who identify as women need and get abortions.]

Emphasis is mine. Flawless commentary is flawless.

4 months ago · 858 notes · Source · Reblogged from venetianfemininebitch

Remember the scandal over Janet Jackson’s boob during the Super Bowl?

newwavefeminism:

redlightpolitics:

Super Bowl Viewers Will See Graphic Anti-Abortion Ads With Pictures Of Bloody Fetuses

America: where nothing we believe in actually makes sense… smh…

4 months ago · 1,018 notes · Source · Reblogged from newwavefeminism

The racial imbalance in New York City’s foster care population is truly mind-boggling: out of 42,000 children in the system at the end of 1997, only 1,300 were white. About 30 percent of the children who live in New York City are white. Yet white children make up only 3 percent of its foster care caseload. Less than 24 percent in foster care are Latino and the vast majority — 73 percent — are African American. Clearly, child welfare authorities consider foster care a last resort when it comes to white families.

Black children, on the other hand, are separated from their parents with relative ease. One out of every twenty-two Black children in New York City is in foster care. The system’s grasp is even tighter on poor Black neighborhoods, such as Central Harlem, where one out of ten children has been placed in foster care. This means that in every apartment building in Central Harlem, we could expect to find at least one family whose children are in state custody. This is a far cry from the more reasonable odds for white children — only one out of 385. Black children are ten times more likely to be placed in foster care in New York City than white children.
—  

Dorothy Roberts, Shattered Bonds: The Color of Child Welfare (via notime4yourshit)

When my ex filed the phony abuse reports against me (long story short, this was his idea of a way to get custody & stop paying child support), they came to my then 3 year old son’s preschool intent on taking him into custody immediately. Fortunately the report detailed serious bruises which didn’t exist at all. Plus the school’s assistant director had some experience with DCFS & she insisted that they interview kiddo in the building or go get a warrant. They interviewed him, quickly figured out he’d been coached (badly, since he could only remember part of the story), and after a visit to my home & checking with his pediatrician they closed the case. I got through it, but it was clear to me throughout that it was my ex’s stupidity that kept my kid from being taken by the system. If it hadn’t been such a blatant misuse of the system I don’t know that they wouldn’t have taken kiddo from me. I was black, single, living in the projects (see the aforementioned child support which wasn’t getting paid & still isn’t), and getting over cancer. The social worker even made comments about how amazed she was at the cleanliness of my house & the amount of healthy food in my fridge. They expect us to be bad parents so any deviation from the white suburban “norm” can have dire consequences for parents of color or lower economic means.

(via karnythia)

this is/was the way it is for Native Americans as well. prior to 1978 (i.e. the passing of the Indian Child Welfare Act) 25% of native kids were being put in foster homes and/or adopted out. That act was made to protect the children however CPS and other adoption agencies around the country found ways to get around it or just straight up disregarded it. When they did a study to see if it the act was working 10 years later in 1988, they had found that now the numbers had jumped up to 35% 

8 months ago · 309 notes · Source · Reblogged from adailyriot