Take a Sick Day for Women's Health!
Early in the morning, hundreds of women, men and children will be boarding buses and carpooling. Perhaps yawning or drinking another cup of coffee, they will be coming from Midland, Corpus Christi, San Antonio, McAllen - coming from cities and towns all over Texas. All coming to Austin on March 1 to make a difference.

Will you be joining them?
Women's health supporters converge in Austin once every legislative session to talk to their senators and representatives about why reproductive health care matters to women and their families. Planned Parenthood of Houston and Southeast Texas has room for YOU on one of our lobby day buses. We leave early in the morning and conduct training for the afternoon's member visits during the ride. Once we hit Austin, we divide into groups for visits with our legislators. After a stimulating day of talking with our elected officials, we head back on the buses arriving around 8:00pm. This year we are taking 8 buses from across our service area and encourage women's health supporters to join with us and make a difference for women and families in Texas!

Let the Texas Legislature Know Women's Health is a Texas Priority!

Need a reason to attend? Take your pick!
* A bill has already been filed in the Texas House to allow pharmacists and pharmacies to refuse to fill prescriptions for emergency contraception - and birth control! They would not be required to refer women
to other providers.
* There have been no significant increases in the state budget for family planning services for the last several sessions, and approximately 1 million Texas women have no access to basic reproductive health care such as
Pap smears.
* In 2001, Governor Perry vetoed a bill that would have given more Texas women access to family planning services and would have saved the state $122 million by 2005.
* In 2003, the state legislature approved an amendment to the state budget that disqualifies organizations that provide abortions from receiving funding to provide family planning services. Anti-choice legislators claim
the rider is necessary to insure that no family planning funds are used to provide abortion care, but Texas law already prohibits health care providers from using public funds to pay for the direct or indirect costs of providing
abortion services.
* Last session, a bill was passed that changed the definition of an "individual" to include "an unborn child at every stage of gestation from fertilization until birth."
* Another bill passed last session now requires Texas women to wait an additional 24 hours before they can have an abortion and requires providers to offer women misleading and inaccurate information about the procedure -
including the false link between abortion and breast cancer.

To enhance your political skills there will be a special Lobby Day training - please contact Cindy Gibson for more information.

Get on the bus with Planned Parenthood! -contact Cindy Gibson at (713) 831-6588 or cindy.gibson@pphset.org to save your seat!
We will need your name, home address, phone numbers and e-mail information.