Number of the Day

[Content Note: Hostility to accessible healthcare for women et al.]

Three: The number of Planned Parenthood clinics in Texas whose staff were informed today that they would be closing.

The three clinics are located in Bryan, Huntsville and Lufkin, Texas. They are closing in response to a new package of abortion restrictions signed into law on Thursday and funding cuts to Texas' Women's Health Program that were passed by the Texas state legislature in 2011. Out of the three Planned Parenthood clinics that are closing, only the Bryan clinic performs abortions.

"In recent years, Texas politicians have created an increasingly hostile environment for providers of reproductive health care in underserved communities. Texans with little or no access to health care services have been deeply affected by state budget cuts to programs provided by Planned Parenthood health centers and dozens of others that provided lifesaving cancer screenings, well-woman exams and birth control," said Melaney A. Linton, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast.

...Republican state lawmakers voted in 2011 to block all funding from the state's Medicaid family planning program, called the Women's Health Program, from going to Planned Parenthood clinics. All three clinics are now set to close as a result.

The Bryan clinic, meanwhile, is also impacted by the abortion law signed on Thursday, which requires all abortions to take place in ambulatory surgical centers. The clinic would need to undergo a series of renovations to fit that description, which could cost millions of dollars. The new law also bans abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, requires abortion doctors to have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of the facility, and requires doctors to administer the abortion-inducing drug RU-486 in person, rather than allow women to take it at home.

Three clinics that provide life-saving healthcare to mostly women are being closed, and thousands of women left without access to affordable preventative care, treatment, and reproductive services because anti-choicers want to force every pregnant person to conform to their will.

Pro-life my fucking ass. These people are killers.