| (a) Governing rules. This subchapter sets out rules
governing the administration of the Healthy Texas Women (HTW) program.
(b) Authority. This subchapter is authorized generally
by Senate Bill 200, 84th Legislature, Regular Session, 2015, which
transferred client services functions performed by the Texas Department
of State Health Services to HHSC and required 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 HTW program is established to achieve
the following overarching objectives:
(1) to increase access to women's 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 wellbeing 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 that state funds are not
directly or indirectly used 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 Texas Human Resources Code §32.024(c-1)
and any other state law that regulates the delivery of HTW services,
to the extent permitted by the Constitution of the United States.
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