They just reduced the amount of money—dropping the family planning contract from $5.1 million to $2 million and the healthy women program from $1.6 million to $1.2 million. And when they could have simply shifted that money to other clinics which were meeting their goals, they also devoted “vast amounts of time to support Everett and her small, understaffed team.”

Though Everett had absolutely no qualifications whatsoever to be operating an organization which provides reproductive health services, she was given the opportunity to waste millions of dollars, after having developed relationships with conservative lawmakers. Her story is one that conservatives love. She worked for a group of abortion clinics in the 1980s then left and became a devout Christian who renounced abortion. She later created the Heidi Group, named for the fetus she aborted during her second marriage. She was active in pro-life circles around the state, gaining the attention and support of lawmakers, even without credentials to work in women’s health.

In 2015, she was appointed to Texas’ newly created Women’s Health Advisory Committee. Her appointment reeks of nepotism.

Everyone except Everett was either a practicing clinician or had the formal support of state and federal health organizations. According to an internal memo sent to the executive health commissioner, Everett’s name was backed only by [Gov. Greg] Abbott and two other Republicans, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and state Sen. Jane Nelson.

Of course, these three Republicans claim not to have had any involvement in Everett’s appointment. But that’s completely unbelievable considering how she was given access to such money, opportunity, and support. Even more telling is that in 2016, the Heidi Group was in big financial trouble. Not only had they posted losses for four out of five years, their tax returns were inconsistent—with “loan principles growing inexplicably, net asset calculations that didn’t add up.” And still the state handed over taxpayer money, even when, in 2017, the group not only failed to serve the amount of people projected but also failed to reach its outreach goals. The group also closed half of their clinics during the time it was contracted with the state. Out of 22 clinics, only nine had served more than 10 people. It took two whole years of poor results before the state did the right thing and finally canceled its contracts with the group.

Republicans love to complain about wasteful government spending, but look at what occurred on their watch. Not only did the Heidi Group waste millions of dollars, the state continued to give them money and resources, even as other clinics outperformed them. They also played a very dangerous game with women’s health, well-being, and lives by funding them. In a state where women are already suffering poor health outcomes overall and even worse maternal outcomes, giving money to a friend of Republican lawmakers who then uses it to try to force women into having babies they don’t want is simply unconscionable.

It’s clear that Texas Republicans are perfectly fine with bloated government spending and waste when it’s goes toward controlling women’s bodies and saving the babies they want women to have but don’t want to pay for. Every little bit of this is shameful. The only small silver lining is that the Texas Health and Human Services Commission is demanding that the Heidi Group pay back tens of thousands in costs incurred and the investigative unit is looking into $1.1 million the organization billed in costs. Maybe this time, the state government will actually do its job and get some of that taxpayer money back.