Pro-lifers in Texas should rethink their efforts to defund Planned Parenthood's family planning clinics. Texas' recent history demonstrates that, if anything, it is counterproductive to the goal of reducing abortion.

In 2011, the Texas State Legislature reduced the family planning budget by 67 percent, which resulted in more than 80 closures of family planning clinics. This policy change was motivated by a desire to defund Planned Parenthood and to reduce abortions.

But recent research shows that defunding Planned Parenthood's family planning clinics in Texas has not had its intended effect. The evidence suggests that these anti-abortion efforts backfired and actually interfered with a positive, downward trend in abortions. The defunding also increased teen childbearing and made it more difficult for women to obtain preventative care.

A recent study focusing on teenagers, conducted at Texas A&M University by Analisa Packham, suggests that these efforts actually led to more abortions than would otherwise have been performed. Over the first three years, defunding the clinics led to 3.1 percent more abortions than if the clinics had been open. This didn't reverse an overall downward trend in abortions, but slowed down that progress. These estimates are based on a comparison of abortion rates in Texas to abortion rates in other states that were on similar trajectories from 2005 to 2010.

Packham also finds that these funding cuts increased teen childbearing by 3.4 percent over four years.

Yao Lu from the Analysis Group and David Slusky from the University of Kansas have also investigated this episode of funding cuts in a recent study. Using an estimation strategy that compared Texas counties that were more severely affected by closures to those that were less affected, they find that an increase of 100 miles to the nearest women's health clinic results in a 1.2 percent increase in the birth rate.

In an earlier study, Lu and Slusky found that clinic closures have significant impacts on women's use of preventative care, reducing clinical breast exams, mammograms, and pap tests.

These findings might come as a surprise to those who supported the funding cuts and to those who support further efforts to deprive Planned Parenthood of resources by targeting their family planning clinics. But they shouldn't.

Yes, Planned Parenthood operates abortion clinics. The group also operates family planning clinics, which are not the same as abortion clinics. Family planning clinics do not perform abortions and they are prohibited from transferring funds to affiliated abortion clinics.

Family planning clinics provide contraceptives. As such, they play a critical role in preventing unintended pregnancy, which is critical to reducing abortion. This is why defunding Planned Parenthood's family planning clinics is at odds with the pro-life mission.

Support for family planning clinics — even those operated by Planned Parenthood — should be bipartisan.

Jason M. Lindo is an associate professor of economics at Texas A&M University. He wrote this column for The Dallas Morning News. Email: jlindo@tamu.edu

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