GEORGETOWN, Texas (AP) — Texas Gov. Rick Perry plans to promote the state's new Women's Health Program that excludes Planned Parenthood.
He will make an appearance Wednesday with state Health and Human Services Commissioner Kyle Janek to talk about the new program, which starts on Thursday.
The Women's Health Program provides preventive care and contraception to poor women. Perry and Republican lawmakers have worked to ban any clinic or doctor from the program if they have ties to an abortion provider.
That rule ran into trouble with the federal government, which said it violates a woman's right to choose her own doctor. Official said they would cut 90 percent of the funding on Oct. 31.
Perry announced the state would fund its own program, but critics question whether enough doctors will participate.
