Federal grant will feed Texas women's clinics

A crowd waves signs during the Texas Faith and Family Day rally at the Capitol in Austin, where Gov. Rick Perry and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst spoke. A crowd waves signs during the Texas Faith and Family Day rally at the Capitol in Austin, where Gov. Rick Perry and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst spoke. Photo: Deborah Cannon / Austin American-Statesman Photo: Deborah Cannon / Austin American-Statesman Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close Federal grant will feed Texas women's clinics 1 / 3 Back to Gallery

AUSTIN — Gov. Rick Perry on Tuesday called a decision by the Obama administration to send a $6.5 million federal family planning grant to a Texas coalition of women's clinics, rather than a state agency, “a clear attempt to circumvent the will of the Texas taxpayers and impose their own values on the people of Texas.”

His criticism of the White House at a Texas Faith and Family Day rally at the state Capitol was echoed by Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, who claimed the decision would “line the pockets of Planned Parenthood.”

The U.S. Health and Human Services Department on Monday announced that it had awarded a competitively bid grant from the federal Title X program to the Women's Health and Family Planning Association of Texas, bypassing the Department of State Health Services, which had been administering the program.

The state of Texas and Planned Parenthood are in litigation over a separate government family planning program, the Women's Health Program. Rather than comply with a federal rule against excluding providers, the state declined federal matching funds for that program after the Legislature banned any state dollars from flowing to affiliates of abortion providers. The state took over the program and is now running it.

Regarding the grant announced this week, Fran Hagerty, CEO of the Women's Health and Family Planning Association of Texas, said she believes her group demonstrated it could serve more women than the state agency's program. The WHFPA promised to serve 160,000 women, while the state's program reached only 65,000 because of rules limiting what kinds of health entities could access the money.

“Nobody is making money off of anything,” she said. “It's not possible. People do this work because they care.”

Blake Rocap, legislative counsel for NARAL Pro-Choice Texas, praised the decision by the Obama administration and argued that rules adopted by the Legislature should not apply because “it's not Texas' money.”

“They submitted a more competitive bid than the state agency,” he said. “Is the state afraid of a little free market competition?”

patti.hart@chron.com

Twitter: @pattihart