Texas

Campaign for

Women’s

Health


TCWH Home

Target Population

Co-Sponsors

Legislative Priorities

Women’s Health and
Family Planning
Association of Texas

PO Box 3868
Austin TX, 78764
512-448-4857 (voice)
512-448-3373 (fax)
TCWH@whfpt.org
www.whfpt.org/TCWH

The Facts

  • Texas has the highest number of uninsured citizens in the nation with almost 25% of Texans or 4.7 million without health insurance. Of these, an estimated 1.7 are women. The Employee Benefits Research Institute
  • Hundreds of thousands of women in Texas do not get the health care they need because of a lack of insurance and inadequate state funding for subsidized care.
  • In SFY 1997, 13,697 Texas women were diagnosed with gonorrhea, 321 with syphilis, and 42,744 with chlamydia. Hundreds of thousands went without testing; doubtlessly some were infected. Texas Department of Health
  • Half the births in Texas are paid for by Medicaid, at an expenditure of over $6,300 each in delivery and newborn care costs. Texas Department of Health
  • 49% of all pregnancies were unintended in the U.S. in 1994. Institute of Medicine, Division of Health Promotion and Disease Prevention
  • There are still over 1 million low-income women without access to subsidized health screening and family planning services in Texas. Texas Department of Health
  • Four in ten Texas women age 50 and over have not received a mammogram and breast exam in the last two years. 1997, Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance, Texas Department of Health
  • One in four Texas women over 40 have never had a mammogram and breast exam. 1997, Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance, Texas Department of Health
  • Almost 20% of Texas women with intact cervixes have not had a pap smear for the detection of cervical cancer in the last three years. 1997, Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance, Texas Department of Health
  • Older women in Texas are not receiving osteoporosis education which could help them prevent the dangerous bone density loss which could leave them disabled and kill them.
  • Low-income, post menopausal women in Texas do not have access to hormone replacement therapy which could improve their quality of life and prevent heart disease.
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