Having access to wellness and preventive care services like well-woman exams, cancer screenings, and birth control helps all Texas women stay healthy, plan their futures, and provide the best life they can for their families.
Just ask Anavi Cantu.
She’s a 29-year-old mom of three, who’s also a full-time student, from Robstown in South Texas. She and her husband each work two jobs–she works at a local convenience store, he works in an oil field, and they both deliver the Corpus Caller Times newspaper–and they can’t afford to pay for another pregnancy and child.
After the 2011 cuts to family planning funding, the clinic in Robstown where Anavi goes for her annual Pap Smear and birth control cut its hours and will soon start charging for services that were once free. Being able to get birth control from the clinic has kept Anavi healthy and given her and her husband the ability to plan the size of their family. Without the clinic, and the funding to keep it open and convenient for its patients, Anavi wouldn’t know where to go for her services. She wouldn’t be able to go to school full-time or work as much as she needs to to give her children a good life.
It’s families like Anavi’s that the newly formed Texas Women’s Healthcare Coalition, of which CPPP is a member, is coming together to ask the Texas Legislature to restore the funding cuts to state family planning services. The 32-member strong coalition of policy organizations, public health groups, healthcare groups, and faith-based organizations will work to improve the lives of all Texas women, their children, and their families by ensuring they have access to basic wellness and preventive services. Plus, giving women these services actually saves Texas money.
You can find more information about the coalition on their website.
