Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX) convened a press conference today to announce the creation of a fully state-funded Women’s Health Program for Medicaid recipients, but his political theater only served to obscure the truth about women’s health services in Texas.

Earlier this year, Texas announced its intention to fund the Medicaid providers in its Women’s Health Program solely through the state as a method of defunding local Planned Parenthood affiliates. Since states are not allowed to withhold federal Medicaid funds from qualified providers like Planned Parenthood, Texas legislators needed to find a workaround to continue to exclude the national health organization — which they chose to target as an “abortion affiliate,” even though abortion services represent just three percent of its total medical care — from the Women Health’s Program.

But even though Perry claimed his state is “ready” to begin fully funding the Women’s Health Program today — and even rolled out a new logo for the program — the Associated Press confirmed that they will not actually do so until Medicaid providers stop receiving federal funding. Since federal funding is guaranteed through the end of this year, Texas’ Planned Parenthood affiliates will continue to receive their full Medicaid funds until December 31. In a press release, Planned Parenthood officials celebrated the fact that their organization will be able to keep its doors open to the thousands of low-income women it serves:

Despite confusing statements from state officials, today’s announcement means that Planned Parenthood can continue to be a part of the Women’s Health Program as long as the “Affiliate Ban Rule” remains blocked by court order. Planned Parenthood and WHP patients expressed relief upon the announcement that tens of thousands of Texas women will not yet experience a disruption in WHP services, including breast and cervical cancer screenings, birth control, and testing for sexually transmitted infections.

“Today’s announcement is an important victory for every woman who relies on the Women’s Health Program for basic, preventive health care,” said Ken S. Lambrecht, President and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas. “Our doors remain open today and always to every Texas woman in need of affordable, high quality health care.”

Planned Parenthood filed a state lawsuit last week that blocks Texas from shutting down the Women’s Health Program altogether and preserves the organization’s federal funding for now. But thanks to the complicated legal battle that the national health organization is currently embroiled in, the future of the funding for its Texas affiliates remains unclear. Planned Parenthood officials say that Texas state law clearly stipulates that the Women’s Health Program needs to be funded federally — not on a state level, as Perry and his HHS Department are pushing for — so Texas lawmakers’ politically-motivated attacks on women’s health clinics will fall flat in court. Planned Parenthood’s next court date is set for November 8.

Ultimately, Perry is only serving to confuse the low-income women in Texas about the health care providers they can access through their Medicaid plans. Planned Parenthood is currently Texas’ largest Medicaid provider, serving tens of thousands of women across the state who often have no other means to access health insurance, and women deserve to know they can continue receiving critical health services at Planned Parenthood clinics in 2012.

When Texas Republicans succeeded in defunding Planned Parenthood by cutting the women’s health group and other “affiliates of abortion providers” out of the Women’s Health Program, doctors and advocates warned that this would hurt health care for low-income women in the state. Without Planned Parenthood clinics in the Medicaid-funded health program, providers will have to take up to five times the number of patients they currently serve. More than 100,000 women will lose their access to preventive health care.

So far, at least 50 health clinics unaffiliated with Planned Parenthood have been forced to close. Now, Carla Hovela of Planned Parenthood of West Texas said the budget cuts are forcing another Planned Parenthood clinic to close in Abilene, Texas:

Holeva said having to close the Abilene facility is the result of cuts to a women’s health care program by Gov. Rick Perry.

Approximately 160,000 women across Texas have relied on the program’s funding, including about 1,500 annually at the Abilene center, Holeva said, noting the program provided pap smears, breast exams and birth control for participants.

“It (the program) has absolutely no connection to abortion,” Holeva said.

One day a month for the past few years, the clinic has provided medication abortions, but the practice was stopped last week. Women who seek abortion care or services like pap smears or STD testing will have to travel elsewhere. The clinic’s patient records will be transferred to Planned Parenthood West Texas’s San Angelo Health Center, which is almost 100 miles away.

Of the least-insured metropolitan areas in the United States, seven of the top ten fall in states where the Governor has refused to accept the expansion of the Medicaid program offered up under Obamacare.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R), Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R), and Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal (R) have all said expressly that their states will not allow the expansion to take effect — despite the fact that it would offer afforable health care to citizens up to 133 percent of the poverty line who are currently uninsured and who often rely on the emergency room for their only care, racking up costs for taxpayers. But their states have some of the highest level of uninsured people overall, and are host to the least-insured American cities:

The expansion of Medicaid is actually beneficial to the states that implement it. Aside from the obvious benefit of helping more Americans stay healthy, it is projected to save states money by cutting down on the public expenses of unexpected hospital visits by sick uninsured people. And support for the expansion is wide; doctors and hospital officials believe it will hugely benefit them by taking away the burden of sudden urgent care.

The Governor of Nevada, Brian Sandoval (R), has not yet committed to expanding the Medicaid program in his state. California Gov. Jerry Brown (D), on the other hand, has indicated his state will participate in the expansion.

More than 25 percent of Texans — about 6.2 million residents in the Lone Star state — are uninsured. The Affordable Care Act’s expansion of the Medicaid program would give Texas federal funds to help address that coverage gap, but Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX) has pledged to reject the Medicaid expansion, playing politics with the health of millions of his constituents who struggle to afford insurance.

County officials, however, won’t stand by as their governor refuses to take steps to improve Texas’ health care system, which is ranked as the worst in the nation. Frustrated with Perry’s authority to block funds that could positively impact county budgets as well as low-income Texans, they are discussing the possibility of circumventing the governor to set up their own Medicaid expansions in the the state’s largest counties:

George Hernandez Jr., CEO of University Health System in San Antonio, came up with the idea of the alternative, county-run Medicaid expansion, and said he has been discussing it with other officials in his county, Bexar. “They are all willing,” he said. He added that he has also been talking up the proposal with officials in other big counties, such as those including Houston and Dallas, and is optimistic they’ll support the idea. [...]

The county-led effort would require the consent of both the White House and the Texas legislature. Federal officials would have to waive requirements that states apply the same eligibility standards statewide.

Whatever the plan’s fate, it shows that frustrated local officials don’t necessarily want to give the governor the last word on whether to accept millions of federal health aid that could ease local burdens.

Texas’ Medicaid program is one of the most restrictive in the nation, requiring a family of three to bring in an annual income of less than $5,000 to qualify for assistance — far less than the federal poverty line. In order to compensate, Texas’ biggest counties currently offer free or low-cost health care for uninsured residences whose incomes far surpass the Medicaid cut-off, but those programs are costly. Local officials say that expanding Medicaid would shift some of the costs to federal government, take some burden off strained county budgets, and provide for local tax cuts. Hospital officials also warn that Texas’ existing county programs should not operate as a complete substitute for Medicaid, pointing out that patients’ quality of care would be better under Medicaid than in the stop-gap programs in the counties, which are often stretched too thin.

Perry has remained largely oblivious to his state’s insurance coverage issues, even going so far as to claim that “everyone in America has access to health care.” Unfortunately for Perry, that is especially untrue for Texans. Nevertheless, Perry continues to align himself with the other Republican governors who are committed to turning down Medicaid expansion in their states at the expense of their uninsured residents.

Last March, Republican lawmakers in Texas blocked funding for the state’s Planned Parenthood clinics, mandating that the organizations in the Texas’ Women’s Health Program shouldn’t receive federal funds because they are “affiliated” with an abortion provider. Despite the fact that abortion services contribute to just 3 percent of Planned Parenthood’s nationwide health services, and federal funding isn’t used to finance that small percentage, Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX) slashed the Texas Women’s Health Program’s funds by 90 percent.

Months later, the consequences of those deep cuts extend far beyond Planned Parenthood itself. The Texas Observer notes that clinics in rural areas have been forced to suspend the family planning services they used to provide for low-income women, many of whom can’t otherwise afford oral contraceptives, pregnancy tests, pap smears, or screening for sexually transmitted diseases:

In the year since deep cuts to family planning funding took effect, the impact has become apparent. An Observer review of state records has found that 146 clinics have lost state funds, clumped mainly in the Panhandle, Central Texas and on the border with Mexico. More than 60 of those clinics have closed their doors forever. The number of organizations that help poor women plan pregnancy has shrunk by almost half. As in San Saba, low-income women in many areas of Texas now face a long drive, or worse, lack of access to birth control and health screenings.

In fact, of the more than 60 clinics that have closed across Texas, only 12 were run by Planned Parenthood. Dozens of other clinics unconnected to Planned Parenthood nonetheless lost state funds and have closed, leaving low-income women in wide swaths of the state without access to contraception. [...]

Indeed, the bipartisan Legislative Budget Board estimated that last year’s cuts would lead to more than 250,000 women losing services and 20,000 additional births covered by Medicaid. When The Texas Observer asked providers what they thought about the cuts, several mentioned the same phrase. They said in hoping to punish Planned Parenthood, politicians had gone too far, with devastating consequences for women’s health. Lawmakers, they said, had thrown the “baby out with the bath water.”

Among the health clinics that have managed to remain open, many have been forced to contract their geographic range, limiting services to a smaller population of Texas women. Regardless of affiliation to Planned Parenthood, limiting health clinics’ ability to provide critical health services to low-income women does not have the intended consequence of targeting abortion providers. Rather, Perry’s drastic cuts to the Women’s Health Program are preventing struggling women from getting access to the care they need.

Throughout the political battles over the War on Women, Planned Parenthood has become a buzzword for anti-choice Republicans who seek to equate Planned Parenthood clinics with death and destruction. However, the real destruction is wreaked when overarching, politically-motivated attacks on women’s health providers leave low-income women with no affordable contraceptive options, no available STI tests, no regular cancer screenings, and no control over their reproductive health.

Eight days after the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate and ruled that the federal government cannot penalize states that refuse to expand Medicaid, Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) announced that he would not open the program to more applicants. But while he was making a public show of turning down federal funds, Perry was using the additional dollars in state budget projections.

In a letter explaining how he would fill a budget gap left by Texas’ decision to defund Planned Parenthood, Perry’s office uses the money the federal government will pay states that make Medicaid available to individuals up to 133 percent of the Federal Poverty Line in its budgetary assumptions:

Greta Rymal, Deputy Executive Commissioner for Financial Services, has projected the fiscal impact of this rule for three years, assuming that all clients will be eligible for Medicaid following the expansion of the Medicaid program in January 2014 [...]

Several months ago, the Texas health commissioner signed a rule to ban Planned Parenthood or any organization the state considers an “abortion affiliate” from participating in Medicaid’s Women’s Health Program, which “provides low-income women with family planning exams, related health screenings and birth control” throughout Texas. The state’s discrimination against a specific health provider violated federal rules and led Washington, which had financed 90 percent of the WHP through Medicaid funds, to block Texas from receiving further funding for the program.

According to a new report from the George Washington University School of Public Health, more than 52,000 people benefited from Planned Parenthood’s services as part of the Women’s Health Program in Texas in 2010.