Plan B isn’t widely available for the state’s poorest people

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On Friday, Gov. Greg Abbott instructed The Dallas Morning News that rape victims can take emergency contraception, like Plan B, to stop a being pregnant. With abortion now banned in Texas, even in situations of incest or rape, the governor really useful the use of emergency contraception to make sure a sufferer of rape doesn’t grow to be pregnant.

But for the lowest-income people in Texas, emergency contraception isn’t widely accessible, advocates mentioned — a consequence of the vital variety of people of childbearing age who’re uninsured and the state’s lack of applications that present entry to remedy like Plan B.

During a pre-recorded section of Lone Star Politics, Abbott said of rape victims, “By accessing health care immediately, they can get the Plan B pill that can prevent a pregnancy from occurring in the first place. With regard to reporting it to law enforcement, that will ensure that the rapist will be arrested and prosecuted.”

Emergency contraception primarily works by stopping fertilization. The remedy can forestall somebody from changing into pregnant if taken as much as 5 days after intercourse, with various effectiveness.

In situations of rape, Abbott mentioned, “We want to support those victims, but also those victims can access health care immediately, as well as to report it.”

After signing Senate Bill 8 into regulation final September, which banned abortions after about six weeks of being pregnant and didn’t present exceptions for rape or incest, Abbott said the state’s objective was to eradicate rape. Abbott’s workplace didn’t return a request for touch upon Saturday.

In 2020, Texas ranked 16th in the nation for whole variety of forcible rape circumstances per capita.

Emilee Whitehurst, the CEO of Houston Area Women’s Center, mentioned a major variety of rapes aren’t reported, and the precise variety of victims is increased than those who search remedy at a hospital.

Whitehurst added that emergency contraception shouldn’t be a substitute for abortion entry in any method, however these accountable for the abortion ban in Texas have left victims of sexual assault with few choices. She mentioned it was insulting to listen to that Plan B must be relied on to stop pregnancies given the risks victims of sexual assault already face.

“To presume Plan B could be a substitute for abortion care represents such a fundamental misunderstanding of the reality of women’s lives and our biology,” Whitehurst mentioned.

While emergency contraception is available for buy over the counter, it may value $50 at a pharmacy. Some insurance coverage cowl the value of emergency contraception, however those that are uninsured have to choose up that extra expense.

For girls of childbearing age in Texas, more than a quarter had no health insurance in 2017 — the highest rate in the nation. This is precipitated, partly, as a result of Texas has not expanded Medicaid and has considered one of the lowest eligibility requirements in the nation. A single mum or dad with three kids must earn lower than $400 a month to qualify for Medicaid.

In addition to the lack of protection, the state’s applications that focus on girls’s healthcare don’t present emergency contraception. Neither the Family Planning Program nor the Healthy Texas Women Program present emergency contraception.

Title X clinics stay considered one of the few options for low-income people to entry emergency contraception at an reasonably priced value. However, these federally-funded reproductive well being clinics don’t function in each neighborhood in the state.

Whitehurst mentioned that assured entry to emergency contraception is “fairytale thinking.” She mentioned younger victims of sexual assault, particularly, will battle to entry that type of contraception.

“It is not easily available, it is not easily affordable, and it is an untenable resolution to the terrible situation women now find themselves in with no access to abortion,” Whitehurst mentioned.

In the occasion of victims of rape, the instant want to hunt out emergency contraception compounds the trauma a survivor is already going through, mentioned Chau Nguyen, a trauma therapist with JEM Wellness & Counseling in Houston. Nguyen mentioned in an announcement to The Texas Tribune that low-income Texans and girls of colour already face obstacles to healthcare entry, which incorporates emergency contraception.

“The sad truth is, women will choose putting food on the table to feed their kids over their own health care. And that can greatly put their own lives at risk,” Nguyen mentioned.

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