The nation's largest abortion provider is fighting a rival health care provider that isn't aborting babies.

The Heidi Group was awarded a one-year contract in Texas with a stated goal of serving 50,000 women in rural areas, stirring up controversy in the Lone Star State for its pro-life stance.

The $1.6 million contract from the Health and Human Services expires in August, and Heidi is fighting Planned Parenthood, pro-abortion lawmakers, and the media half-way through it.

The organization is led by founder Carol Everett, a former abortion clinic owner.

"It was never my goal to replace Planned Parenthood," she says of Heidi. "It was to show that there was a different level of medical care out there."

Everett says Heidi has signed up 23 physicians and mid-level providers in 63 counties, but critics say the effort so far is a failure.

A critical story by The Associated Press suggests the Heidi contract is part of a "long-sought dream" of Republicans to defund Planned Parenthood by proving that other health clinics can take care of women.

"Get by without Planned Parenthood? One Texas effort stumbles," reads the AP headline.

Everett tells OneNewsNow that Heidi's task is different than the abortion giant.

"Our people were not accustomed to assessing a patient to eligibility and using government programs, so we have had a period of training.We are learning," she says.

Within the Texas legislature, the Heidi Group's most vocal critic efforts is state Rep. Sarah Davis, who received close to $16,000 in gifts-in-kind from Planned Parenthood during the 2016 campaign cycle.