Sponsored by: Rep. Mark Strama (D-Austin) and Sen. Kirk Watson (D-Austin)

Summary:

This bill would have expanded access to preventive health care services through education and outreach, required that schools inform parents about the content of the school’s sex education program, and required that contraceptive use be taught in terms of accurate success and failure rates.  (Many sex education programs currently used only discuss condoms and contraception in terms of exaggerated failure rates, leading young people to think that they don’t work at all.)   This bill called for the state to fund an outreach and marketing program to increase public awareness about family planning programs that provide preventive care such as well-woman exams, contraception, screening and treatment for sexually transmitted infections, and screening for breast and cervical cancer.

PPNT Position:

Supported— The Texas Prevention First Act would have helped to prevent unintended pregnancies and improve the health and wellness of Texas families.  By increasing enrollment in preventive care programs through outreach and marketing programs, Texas could have increased access to family planning services while also saving taxpayers money. According to the Texas Department of State Health Services, for every $1 spent on family planning, $3 is saved in Medicaid costs for prenatal, delivery, and first-year infant care. Medicaid currently pays for approximately half of all births in Texas.  Increased access to prevention services would reduce unintended pregnancies, thereby reducing the number of abortions.   This bill would have also helped keep parents informed of the content of their school district’s sex education curriculum and their rights as parents.  Finally, it had the potential to help protect teens by ensuring that when contraceptive use is taught in schools, teens would receive complete and medically-accurate information they need to protect themselves when, in the future, they do have sex.

Latest Action:

04/26/2007 – HB 1842 voted favorably from the House State Affairs Committee and sent to House Calendars Committee. 04/03/2007 – SB 837 awaiting vote after being heard in the Senate Health and Human Services committee.

Recorded Votes:

HB 1842 - 4/25/07 - House State Affairs Committee (Passed 5-4).  PPNT supported this bill.  For (Pro-Choice)  Against (Anti-Choice)  Rep. Veasey, Marc (D-Fort Worth)  Rep. Parker, Tan (R-Flower Mound)  Rep. Cook, Byron (R-Corsicana)  Rep. Flynn, Dan (R-Van)    Rep. Paxton, Ken (R-McKinney)