The Texas House just agreed to take $20 million from clean air initiatives and put that funding into the state’s Alternatives to Abortion plan: an initiative that funds faith-based, non-medical crisis pregnancy centers.
The vote took place late on Thursday night and passed at 131-16.
NARAL Pro-Choice Texas executive director Heather Busby released a statement condemning the vote on Thursday morning.
“It is shameful that the state continues to give millions of health care dollars to non-medical entities that lie to, shame and manipulate Texans considering an abortion,” she said. “Especially at a time when vulnerable children are dying in foster care, public education remains chronically underfunded and cuts to Medicaid for disabled kids remain in place.”
The vote will head to the state Senate next, and comes less than a month after an Associated Press report found that the Heidi Group, which is part of the Alternatives to Abortion initiative, isn’t meeting the requirements agreed upon after it received a $1.6 million taxpayer-funded government grant in August of last year.
The Heidi Group was supposed to put the funding toward support for women with unplanned pregnancies on Facebook, providing a 1-800 number for women who need help or guidance, or airing public service announcements.
The AP found that the organization “has done little of the outreach it promised.”
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