More than 20 women’s health clinics in Texas have closed since a new abortion law went into effect last year, but a new website is aimed at helping low-income women find health services.
The services include cancer screenings, access to birth control and help to stop smoking. Texas lawmakers say they’re available largely because of $113 million in state funding set aside in 2013, and they’re also funded by Medicaid dollars.
"We had these programs but we were very clumsy," said Dr. Kyle Janek, commissioner of the Texas Health and Human Services Commission. "We were clumsy in terms of making it easy for them to find which programs had which services that they need."
Janek says now it’s easy for low-income women to find them through the bilingual Healthy Texas Women website. Women must apply to be approved for the services, offered by the commission and the Department of State Health Services. The website is funded by charity and private donations.
