A Texas Health and Human Services Commission official is stepping down due to backlash from state Republicans about a study he co-authored, which found that cuts to Planned Parenthood are limiting access to women’s health care in the state, reports the Associated Press.
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Republican leaders who pushed Planned Parenthood out of a state health program in 2013 rebuked the study and demanded answers from state health leaders about Allgeyer’s involvement. He was eligible for retirement and will leave in March, agency spokesman Bryan Black said Thursday.
Walker signed a pair of bills that would cut millions of dollars from Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin, the women’s health nonprofit that’s perpetually the center of the political fight over abortion. She also raised concerns about the validity of the study because it did not account for two new programs launched by the state in 2014: the expanded Primary Health Care Program and another that provides women with full Medicaid benefits, according to the report. Black said neither state employee told superiors they were working on the study, which Black has said was a violation at the 55,000-person agency. Allgeyer, who has been at the commission for 16 years and was one of the study’s five listed authors, declined to comment.
A second co-author, Imelda Flores-Vazquez, also works for Texas’ state health agency, but Black didn’t address her status. Jane Nelson denounced the study as invalid, partially because it was funded by a Planned Parenthood supporter, the non-profit Susan T. Buffett Foundation.
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Planned Parenthood officials said the study showed the impact of “politically motivated” decisions. The new rules would have the Title X grant, formerly received by Planned Parenthood to be sent to public health entities, such as state, country, and local health entities after the state has formally applied for family-related funding.
