AUSTIN — Since Texas forced Planned Parenthood out of the state's Women's Health Program in 2011, almost 45,000 fewer Texas women are receiving state health care services, according to a report released Thursday by the left-leaning Center for Public Policy Priorities.

State GOP leaders removed Planned Parenthood from the Women's Health Program to prevent public financing from going to the group. The Obama administration responded by halting the program's primary source of funding, about $30 million a year in federal Medicaid dollars.

If the Trump administration restores the funding, as Texas has requested, more states would kick Planned Parenthood out of family planning programs, the report warns.

"What happens in Texas is a big deal," said Stacey Pogue, senior policy analyst for the Center for Public Policy Priorities.

"For any state that's thinking of cutting Planned Parenthood or any health care provider from Medicaid-funded family planning programs, what has happened in Texas has shown the result will limit women's access to care," Pogue added.

After removing Planned Parenthood, Texas made efforts to recruit new providers to the Women's Health Program, later renamed Healthy Texas Women.

Despite the addition of dozens of health centers, the number of women receiving care declined from more than 115,000 in 2011 to just over 70,000 in 2016, according to the report. Texas women have also seen a reduction in access to contraception and increased rates of births financed by Medicaid, the report states.

Texas has become ground zero in the national battle over public funding for Planned Parenthood, a group social conservatives have targeted because some clinics in its network perform abortions. During the last decade, lawmakers have passed bill after bill aimed at cutting funds to the group. Lawmakers are considering bills that would further defund the health care provider.

One of those measures, Senate Bill 4 by Sen. Charles Schwertner, R-Georgetown, would prohibit local governments from sending tax dollars to abortion providers or their affiliates.

Federal and state laws already ban taxpayer money from being used to pay for abortions. Planned Parenthood receives some public funds to provide services such as cancer screenings and testing for sexually transmitted diseases.

"We don't think that taxpayers should have to provide funding to an organization that promotes abortion as a method of birth control," said Joe Pojman, executive director of Texas Alliance for Life, which supports Schwertner's bill. "The dollars are what makes Planned Parenthood go round, and shifting those dollars to other health care providers is a benefit to low-income women and Texas taxpayers.

"Texas is leading the nation in defunding Planned Parenthood."

Meanwhile, the mayors of Austin, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio on Monday released a letter to House Speaker Joe Straus urging him to stop proposals targeting Planned Parenthood.

"In Texas, nearly 130,000 people a year depend on Planned Parenthood health centers for essential, quality health care," the letter states. "Without Planned Parenthood, Texans may delay or go without this vital care."