“In shutting down licensed abortion clinics and instead legitimizing crisis pregnancy centers, Texas officials have made it clear that they do not truly care about the health and safety of pregnant Texans.”
Nearly a dozen state-funded fake clinics in Texas have not received required annual inspections since September 2016, as inspections of these fake clinics revealed dozens of discrepancies, including violations of basic safety protocols, according to documents reviewed by Rewire.News.
Republicans in the Texas legislature have created burdensome regulations for abortion clinics, while lawmakers have funneled millions of taxpayer dollars to so-called crisis pregnancy centers, fake clinics that deploy anti-choice propaganda.
Alexa Garcia-Ditta, communications director at NARAL Pro-Choice Texas, told Rewire.News that the documents revealed predictable results from a program with no measurable goals or oversight.
“It is shameful that Texas continues to pour millions of taxpayer dollars into fake women’s health centers that operate with no accountability or oversight,” Garcia-Ditta said. “In shutting down licensed abortion clinics and instead legitimizing crisis pregnancy centers, Texas officials have made it clear that they do not truly care about the health and safety of pregnant Texans.”
The Alternative to Abortion services program, created by the GOP-held state legislature in 2005, has distributed $54.9 million organizations that oppose abortion rights and purport to provide support services to pregnant people and adoptive parents.
Texas Health and Human Services overseas the Alternatives to Abortion service program, and during the 2017 legislative session state lawmakers dramatically increased the funding of the program to $38.3 million.
The funds are distributed through the Texas Pregnancy Care Network (TPCN), a nonprofit organization awarded a contract to distribute the funds to more than 50 subcontractors with 121 locations. The subcontractors include social services organizations, adoption agencies, and maternity homes, however, fake clinics are the largest single category of subcontractors with 51 locations.
A Rewire.News investigation found most of the funding distributed by TPCN to fake clinics was not used for concrete assistance or services.
TPCN during the first six months of the current fiscal year has distributed more than $4 million to subcontractor providers, and nearly $2 million has gone to fake clinics. Since 2015, TPCN has funneled more than $10 million to fake clinics.
John McNamara, executive director of the Texas Pregnancy Care Network, told Rewire.News that monitoring occurs at least once a year for all providers. Facilities tours occur when a provider changes location, opens a new facility, makes significant changes, or remodels a facility.
“In addition, extensive monitoring of providers is done on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis remotely from TPCN’s offices,” McNamara said. “Facilities tours occur as needed to ensure that new or altered facilities comply with program standards.”
A review of the quarterly reports submitted to HHSC found there were 11 fake clinics that did not receive an onsite annual monitoring or facility tour between September 2016 and February 2018, and 33 other provider locations also did not receive an onsite annual monitoring or facility tour.
Read the full story at Rewire
