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Originally posted by Replaced_Texan
I was in Austin on Wednesday lobbying with Planned Parenthood for a bill that we're hoping will get more bipartisan support than usual. The push was to associate family planning with fiscal conservatism (more than 1 in 2 pregnancies in Texas are footed by Medicaid. A year on pregnancy related health services costs the state of Texas $8,800. A year of family planning costs $170. And federal matching for family planning is at the highest level of 9-1, so it really just costs the state $22).
There's also a pro-parent aspect to the bill we were pushing, since it emphasizes Abstinence plus education in school, and it also makes the schools tell parents what sort of education their kids are getting. We find that a lot of parents don't know that the sex ed classes aren't really about sex ed but telling the kids not to have sex.
(As an aside, I was riding on the bus with a friend of mine who is a adolescent pediatrician. She told a story about seeing a 15 year old girl with the worst case of herpes she'd ever seen. The kid needed a morphine drip because the outbreak was so bad. She asked the kid why she didn't use a condom. Kid's reply: "They told me condoms don't work.")
Anyhow, here's a copy of the bill, if it makes any sense in California, swipe it. I can't imagine that this sort of thing doesn't already exist there,though.
I thought though that the idea of meeting a middle ground of trying to prevent unwanted pregnancies would go farther than digging in one's feet and insisting on being right on the prochoice debate. This is the NARAL Texas page on the bill.
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Thanks. That is helpful. Although I have to say, I don't want to sound bigoted but my guess is it is a lot easier to reach out to California Republicans than it is with Texas Republicans (Have you ever seen the Texas Republican State Party platform? It is pretty much insane).
I will find out on Monday but I think NARAL California is doing something similar. lt is some sort of education bill that they have been talking to the moderate Republicans about.
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