PRESS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE December 11, 2012

Contact: Rochelle Tafolla 713-831-6573

Texas Planned Parenthood Patient Files Suit to Preserve Access to Basic Health Care “I am in court on behalf of tens of thousands of Texas women like me.” AUSTIN, TX – Today, Marcela “Marcy” Balquinta, along with Texas Planned Parenthood family planning providers, filed suit in state court to ensure that she and other Texas women can continue to rely on Planned Parenthood for affordable access to basic, preventive health care under the state’s new Texas Women’s Health Program that is scheduled to begin January 1. They have asked the state court to allow Planned Parenthood to continue to serve the tens of thousands of women in this program who rely on them for affordable access to breast and cervical cancer screenings, birth control, and other basic health care. Planned Parenthood has also challenged their exclusion from the Texas Women’s Health Program in federal court. “Thanks to the care I receive through Planned Parenthood and WHP, I have been able to keep healthy while finishing up school and working toward my career goals. I love my job and work hard, but at the end of the day, like many women out there, I live paycheck to paycheck,” said Marcela “Marcy” Balquinta, who works as an education coordinator in McAllen, Texas. “Without the affordable care I receive through Planned Parenthood and WHP, I would have to make tough decisions between paying for my cancer screenings and birth control, or buying groceries or gas for my car. If I couldn’t go to Planned Parenthood, I don’t know where I’d turn. And there are tens of thousands of Texas women like me.” Attorneys for Balquinta and Planned Parenthood have asked the state court to issue a temporary injunction prior to January 1 so that Balquinta and the 111,000 Texas women who will be served by the Texas Women’s Health Program will have access to the basic, preventive health care they need. “We are in court to stand up for women like Marcy Balquinta who rely on the Women’s Health Program for breast and cervical cancer screenings, birth control, and other basic care,” said Melaney A. Linton, President and CEO of Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast, Inc. “We will continue to do everything we can to ensure our patient's access to affordable, preventive health care. This is not about Planned Parenthood; it's about the women and their families who rely on us to be here for them no matter what.” In the state suit, attorneys for Balquinta and Planned Parenthood argue that Kyle Janek, Executive Director of the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC), and the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) do not have the authority to exclude Planned Parenthood from their new state-funded Texas Women’s Health Program or to implement the proposed “poison pill” severability clause, which would shut down the entire Texas Women’s Health Program if the court allows Planned Parenthood to participate. This proposed “poison pill” rule makes it clear that the state’s agenda is political and not at all about women’s health. A similar bill was already rejected by state legislators when the Women’s Health Program was renewed in 2011. “The state’s proposed rules are invalid under state law and, most importantly, harm women like Marcy Balquinta who rely on Planned Parenthood, the provider of choice for nearly half of the women in the program, for basic, preventive health care,” said Pete Schenkkan, attorney with Graves, Dougherty, Hearon & Moody. In separate legal proceedings today, Planned Parenthood has filed a lawsuit in federal court challenging the rules that exclude them from the state-funded Texas Women’s Health Program, which violate their rights under

the U.S. Constitution. Although no Planned Parenthood family planning providers in the program provide abortions, this rule is designed to exclude these centers because they are affiliated with legally and financially separate entities that provide safe, legal abortion. If Planned Parenthood is banned from the Texas Women’s Health Program, or if Texas succeeds in shutting down the entire program, it will jeopardize health care access for Balquinta and tens of thousands of Texas women. Recent research demonstrates that providers in many communities would be unable to increase their patient loads enough to offset the loss of Planned Parenthood from the program. Currently more than onequarter of Texas women are uninsured, and women in Texas have one of the highest rates of cervical cancer in the U.S. Background Facts: FACT: A study released October 11, 2012 from the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services is the latest in a body of research finding that eliminating Planned Parenthood from the Women’s Health Program will further exacerbate harm to Texas women caused by Texas’ 2011 cuts to its family planning programs. FACT: A recent analysis from the Center for Public Policy Priorities found that the Women’s Health Program rule that was designed to exclude Planned Parenthood has led nearly 100 health care providers, including Planned Parenthood health centers, to be excluded from or no longer participate in that program. Together, these providers delivered two-thirds (61 percent) of Women’s Health Program services in state fiscal year 2011. FACT: An estimated 160,000 women are already going without preventive health care this year because of Texas officials’ politically motivated budget cuts to family planning, which have already caused dozens of women’s health care centers to close statewide. Due to these same cuts and the redistribution of funds, the state’s Family Planning Program served only 75,160 women in 2012—63% fewer women than in 2011—and paid 15% more per client for care. This reduced access to birth control is expected to cost Texas taxpayers up to an additional $273 million. FACT: A recent peer-reviewed study in the New England Journal of Medicine evaluated the short-term impact of Texas’ 2011 family planning cuts on women’s health. They found the most reliable contraceptive methods, such as IUDs and implants, are less available to women due to higher upfront costs and women are opting out of testing for STDs to save money. “We are witnessing the dismantling of a safety net that took decades to build and could not easily be recreated even if funding were restored soon,” the authors write. FACT: Texas was ranked worst in the nation in health care services and delivery, according to an annual scorecard issued by the federal Agency for Health Care Research and Quality. Governor Perry also publicly stated he would not expand Medicaid as allowed under the Affordable Care Act, which means many women and families in need of health care will continue to be left behind in Texas. FACT: Planned Parenthood providers that contract with the state for family planning grant funds and/or participate in the Women’s Health Program are legally and financially separate from Planned Parenthood providers that provide safe and legal abortions. Moreover, consistent with federal and state law, at no Planned Parenthood facility are Women’s Health Program funds used to perform or “promote” abortion. ### Planned Parenthood Affiliates in Texas are represented by attorneys with the Texas firm Graves, Dougherty, Hearon & Moody and Planned Parenthood Federation of America For more than 75 years, Planned Parenthood has been Texas’ most trusted source of nonprofit reproductive health care.