Texas defies Obama administration’s war on poor women.

You should have seen the original title, by the way.  It was highly profane.

Background: the Texas Medicaid Women’s Health Program provides mixed state-federal assistance to poor women in Texas, including cancer screening.  Recently, the Texas legislature decided to prohibit Planned Parenthood from participating in the program, because then Texas would be subsidizing abortion providers.  The Obama administration retorted by shutting down funding to the Texas Medicaid Women’s Health Program, primarily because Planned Parenthood is a more reliable source of checks for Barack Obama than are poor Texan women.

So what did Governor Rick Perry (R) do?  Perry said fine, be that way:

Perry, who slammed the federal government constantly during his short-lived bid for the Republican presidential nomination, has directed state health officials to find the funding to keep the program going from other parts of the budget, but he has promised not to raise revenues to cover the costs.

[snip]

“It is the height of political posturing for the Obama administration to put the interests of abortion providers and their affiliates, like Planned Parenthood, over the well-being of more than 100,000 low-income Texas women,” Perry said in a statement Thursday. “I will not stand by and let this administration abandon these Texas women to advance its political agenda; Texas will fund these services with or without the federal government.”

Some people reading this may be feeling confused at this moment.  Please do not be alarmed; what you are experiencing right now is merely disorientation at seeing a state legislature and a state governor actually demonstrate that their stated ethical positions are not, in fact, for sale.  This is, of course, a glaring contrast to the Obama administration, who apparently feels that the risk of poor minority women not getting their cancer detected early is a small price to pay for keeping Planned Parenthood sweet.

The horrible part, of course?  Nobody reading this is actually surprised.

(Via Hot Air; and I think that Tina Korbe’s finding this as teeth-grindingly annoying as I am, and for the same reasons.)

Moe Lane

PS: If one of the four candidates still actively running for President actually wants my vote in the Maryland primary, please note: this is your new baseline for showing political courage.