It isn’t safe to give birth in Texas.
Texas has the dubious distinction of ranking at or near the top in several undesirable categories: Seventh in maternal mortality rate, first in the rate of repeat teen pregnancy and first in the number of women (and children) who lack health insurance.
The Texas Legislature has actively dismantled women’s access to health care, cutting family planning funding from $111 million to 37.9 million in 2011. The results were devastating, leading to 82 clinics closing or discontinuing family planning services. The remaining clinics report serving only 54 percent of the clients they served in the previous period.
Jonathan Boos, running for Texas House District 113 in Dallas County, has taken tens of thousands of dollars from anti-consumer groups and will only continue the cycle of neglect of Texas mothers and children. When asked, Jonathan Boos emphatically said he “strongly disagrees” everyone should have health insurance.
Policymakers have voted against an amendment for Medicaid expansion for health coverage access in Texas, which would have benefited more than a million Texas women. Jonathan Boos will be no different.
Texas women need legislators to invest in maternal health and expand state health services, not protect private health care interests. We need our legislature to step up and invest in women’s health. We need to Reform Austin.