| (a) Governing rules. This subchapter sets out rules
governing the administration of the HHSC Family Planning Program.
This program is separate from family planning services provided through
Medicaid.
(b) Authority. This subchapter is authorized generally
by Texas Government Code §531.0201(a)(2)(C), which transfers
client services functions performed by the Texas Department of State
Health Services to HHSC, and Texas Government Code §531.0204
which requires the HHSC Executive Commissioner to develop a transition
plan which includes an outline of HHSC's reorganized structure and
a definition of client services functions.
(c) Objectives. The HHSC Family Planning Program is
established to achieve the following overarching objectives:
(1) to increase access to health and family planning
services to:
(A) avert unintended pregnancies;
(B) positively affect the outcome of future pregnancies;
and
(C) positively impact the health and well-being of
women and their families;
(2) to implement the state policy to favor childbirth
and family planning services that do not include elective abortion
or the promotion of elective abortion within the continuum of care
or services;
(3) to ensure the efficient and effective use of state
funds in support of these objectives and to avoid the direct or indirect
use of state funds to promote or support elective abortion;
(4) to reduce the overall cost of publicly-funded health
care (including federally-funded health care) by providing low-income
Texans access to safe, effective services that are consistent with
these objectives; and
(5) to enforce any state law that regulates the delivery
of non-federally funded family planning services, to the extent permitted
by the Constitution of the United States.
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