Kay Bailey Hutchison Criticizes Rick Perry, Defends Planned Parenthood

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) ripped Governor Rick Perry on Thursday for excluding Planned Parenthood and other programs for women from the Lone Star State's health care program.

“I do think that the governor needs to sit down with the federal government and work it out so that we can have our share, our fair share, not more, of money for Medicaid to help low-income women have their healthcare services,” Hutchison said during an interview on MSNBC.

Hutchison expressed her support for Planned Parenthood and emphasized how low-income women rely on the government programs that are losing funding.

“I think Planned Parenthood does mammograms, they do so much of the healthcare, the preventative healthcare, and if they’re doing that, then we need to provide those services, absolutely,” Hutchison said. “We cannot afford to lose the Medicaid funding for low-income women.”

In mid-March, the Department of Health and Human Services announced it would cut off all Medicaid funding for family planning to the state of Texas, following Perry's decision to implement a new law that excludes Planned Parenthood from the state's Medicaid Women's Health Program.

HuffPost's Laura Bassett reports:

The federal government pays for nearly 90 percent of Texas' $40 million Women's Health Program, and nearly half of the program's providers in Texas are Planned Parenthood clinics. But the new law that went into effect earlier this month disqualified Planned Parenthood from participating in the program because some of its clinics provide abortions, even though no state or federal money can be used to pay for those abortions.

...

Perry wrote a letter to President Obama earlier this month accusing his administration of "mandating which health providers the state of Texas must use" in order to "continue to support abortion providers like Planned Parenthood." He vowed to continue the Women's Health Program in Texas without Planned Parenthood and without federal money, although he has yet to outline how his state will come up with money.

Below, a slideshow of the remaining GOP hopeful's views on women's health:

Comments

[Brooke Doris]

03:25 PM on 03/24/2012

As a Texas woman, and someone who has frequently corresponded with the senator, I know for a fact that Kay Baily Hutchinson is no champion of women's reproductive rights. She is no better than Perry or the rest of the Texas politicians in that regard.

[cybolt]

05:07 PM on 03/23/2012

Maybe KBH can convince the GOP that issues of gender supercede any idea of party loyalty.

[ChezMJ]

01:03 PM on 03/23/2012

Amazing how brave some politicians get when they're not running for re-election...

[Oonagh]

10:21 AM on 03/23/2012

Must be looking for his job?

[vandegrasse]

10:18 AM on 03/23/2012

This woman ran against Perry and lost. This shows you how dense Texas voters are. Not that she's that she's that great, but she's better than_Neannderthal-Man_!

[drydenlaw]

12:22 PM on 03/26/2012

do you really have to insult neanderthals like that- they were vibrant and ahead of their time at that time in history

[jannielee]

09:18 AM on 03/23/2012

Yet Sen. Hutchinson voted for the Blunt bill which would have given employers the right to deny insurance coverage on "moral" ground. Go figure.

[ArkayMI]

09:54 AM on 03/23/2012

For some reason even 'moderate' Republicans like Hutchison, Lugar, Snowe etc. vote 'lock step' with the party when it comes to controversial bills.

[Don Giovanni]

09:17 AM on 03/23/2012

Gary Trudeau strip says it all:

http://www.doonesbury.com/strip/archive/2012/03/16

[debblack]

09:04 AM on 03/23/2012

I know there are strong women in Texax, Virginia, Arizona, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Are they just not paying attention to what these States are doing to them? Rick Perry, Jan Brewer, Scott Walker have turned the governments of their states into tyranical dictatorships; mostly lead by religious extremists. Is this America? Where the state comes into you bedroom and dictates your private sex life with your husband? Where women are discriminated against unapoligeticly? An America where if you do not believe in the same religion, or the male estabished rules of a religion, you are persecuted and told to get out of America? These are the same people saying President Obama is taking their freedom? While they legislate anti women, anti worker, anti latino, and anti voting laws? Any one who votes for a Republican this year will see oppression like never before if they win control of any government, or retain the control they already have. A line needs to be drawn in the sand and the only way is to elect Democrats, especially women, in huge numbers.

[donnyraindog]

08:59 AM on 03/23/2012

I would normally disagree with Kay but she is putting the real needs of flesh and blood people over the interests of party and politics and should be applauded.

[prudencehall]

08:46 AM on 03/23/2012

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison is part of the problem and not the solution. The Republican war on women will end when every single Republican on our ballots is voted out of office and denied office in November. Women have no choice.

[samw1819]

07:04 AM on 03/23/2012

When will Rick Perry, the pimple on mankinds back side go away?

[jannielee]

09:19 AM on 03/23/2012

When Texans vote him out of office by a huge majority, that's when.

[kingwoodkitty]

06:52 AM on 03/23/2012

Like so many republican's now with this issue of women's right to chose and PPH their feeling the heat from their constituents. It's a shame that she waited this long to stand up to Perry and the rest of the Texas's GOP. and I also don't understand what part of English do they not understand when the clinic's that are supported by government funding cannot, will not and are legally unable to perform abortions it's the law.

[ffa1234]

06:51 AM on 03/23/2012

I watched the WHOLE interview . . . Sen. Hutchison grudgingly supported Planned Parenthood in Texas. She had to be asked more than once whether or not Gov. Perry was not acting in the best interests of Texas women. Lest we forget, she voted FOR the Blunt Amendment--just another lock-step Republican who conveniently remembers she's a woman when a vote in the Senate is not concerned.

[mPowerServices]

06:27 AM on 03/23/2012

So why has she waited so long to speak?

[ChezMJ]

01:06 PM on 03/23/2012

Because she was always worried about her political future first & foremost...

Now that she's no longer running for office, she finds courage.

[whisper12340]

06:15 AM on 03/23/2012

As a Texan I never belived I could agree with Kay Bee about anything. Will wonders never cease?
Abortions are legal. Get that? Abortions are legal. By law no government money can be used for abortions. Get that? Of course Perry is friends of the pink girls from Dallas. Just more reasons to give money directly to PP and hardly ever vote for a Republican.