In recent years, anti-choice groups have begun using state-level regulations, commonly known as Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers (TRAP) laws, to drive abortion clinics out of business. Since the passage of Texas’s TRAP law, House Bill 2, in 2013, over half of Texas’s abortion clinics have been forced to stop providing abortion care services or close their doors. Because the Supreme Court has temporarily blocked parts of the law, Houston currently has five abortion clinics. Should the entire law go into effect, the greater Houston area would be left with only two clinics, and the ratio of abortions performed in Houston annually would increase from about 3,900 to over 11,000, according to a study by the Texas Policy Evaluation Project. The same study predicts that wait times will likely increase due to higher demand, resulting in an increase in proportion of second trimester and later term abortions performed.
In addition to the damage caused by House Bill 2, the Texas Legislature has notoriously underfunded state women’s health care programs. Some of the most notable damage occurred in 2011, when the state’s family planning budget was slashed by two-thirds despite only meeting one-third of the need prior to the cuts. The budget cuts have since resulted in the closures of dozens of women’s health and family planning clinics across the state. For low-income women, safe abortion and contraception can be so difficult to obtain, it can be completely out of reach. All restrictions on access to reproductive health care hurt Texas families. Houstonians who seek reproductive health care services should be treated with fairness, respect, and dignity, regardless of income, gender identity, sexual orientation, immigration status, ability, age, or any other factor.
- The Houston community deserves properly implemented programs to support reproductive health clinic access, and such programs should be sufficiently enforced and adequately resourced.
The City of Houston should take necessary steps to ensure patients and clinic staff are able to access an abortion clinic free of harassment, violence, and obstruction. - Plan B is a safe form of reproductive health care. It should be available, affordable, and easily accessible to those who need it.
The City of Houston should work to ensure that all Houston hospital emergency rooms that treat women after a sexual assault not only inform them about Plan B as part of this care, as required by Texas law, but also provide Plan B on site upon request.
The City of Houston should work to create programs promoting public awareness about Plan B and take steps to encourage all health care providers to inform their patients about Plan B.
All City-funded health centers should provide Plan B free of charge or on a sliding fee schedule.
The City of Houston must take steps to ensure that all Houston pharmacies are sufficiently stocking Plan B on their shelves accordingly, so that Plan B is readily available to those who request it.
- No one should be denied access to safe abortion care services just because they can’t afford to pay.
Comprehensive information on available funding options, including local non-profit organizations providing financial assistance for abortion care (AKA abortion funds), should be available at county hospitals for low-income women who are residents of any Houston county.
The Houston Health Department, in conjunction with local abortion funds, should conduct research to develop a strategy to ensure that low-income Houstonians are able to secure adequate funding for safe abortion care in Houston.
- Deceptive advertising by crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs) should not be allowed in the City of Houston.
Crisis pregnancy centers often seek to prevent clients from having an abortion by fraudulently representing themselves as health care facilities and/or abortion providers. The City of Houston should treat as unlawful fraud any advertising efforts made by CPCs that are untrue or clearly designed to mislead the public about the nature of services provided.
