AUSTIN — Gov. Greg Abbott is asking President Donald Trump to approve millions of dollars in federal money for Texas to supplement women’s health care.

Abbott on Tuesday encouraged Trump to accept the state's application for a "1115 waiver" to help fund its Healthy Texas Women program. In 2011, Republican state leaders pushed Planned Parenthood clinics out of the women's health program, which violated a federal law allowing Medicaid users to see the provider of their choice. The next year, federal Medicaid authorities rescinded the waiver that funded 90 percent of the program.

Abbott said in a letter to the president that reinstating the waiver would build upon the Trump administration’s attempt to restore “a culture of life in our federal government,” after Obama administration policies punished Texas for its anti-abortion priorities.

“Fortunately, the retaliatory actions taken by the Obama administration can be easily reversed,” Abbott wrote. “Reinstating federal funding for Texas’ women’s health program provides an additional opportunity to put those values into action, all while supporting health care access for Texas women.”

The state Health and Human Services Commission applied for a new waiver last June, requesting $405 million for family planning purposes over the next five years. The waiver, which Texas had before 2012, allows the state to use Medicaid funds while ignoring some laws tied to the federal health program for the poor. One law requires Medicaid funding recipients to provide comprehensive benefits, but Texas was able to waive that to provide a narrower range of care for its Women's Health Program.

Commission spokeswoman Carrie Williams said it’s unclear when the agency will receive a response from the federal government.

In 2016, the commission combined the Texas Women’s Health Program and the Expanded Primary Health Care Program into Healthy Texas Women. Healthy Texas Women provides family planning and preventive services to low-income women whose families earn less than 200 percent of the federal poverty level. For example, a woman on her own must make less than $2,010 a month and a family of four less than $4,100 a month to qualify.