Defunding women’s health clinics worsened Latina disparity in preventive care
*Ever since Texas and Wisconsin defunded abortion clinics, Latina preventive care has decreased. VL
By Medical Express (3.5 minute read) 
Defunding women’s health clinics in Texas and Wisconsin aimed at reducing abortions has decreased the number of preventive care exams and tests given to Hispanic women in those states when compared with non-Hispanic white women, according to a University of Kansas economist’s new study.
“Many of these cuts and procedural changes that led to clinic closures in these states weren’t done to reduce preventive care, but we’re finding that these policies had unintended consequences that should be factored in as we consider other state and federal policies like them,” said David Slusky, assistant professor of economics.
The study published recently in the journal Economics Letters is a follow-up project to Slusky’s 2015 co-authored paper that found clinic closures that resulted in increased driving distance to the nearest clinics more so reduced preventive care for less-educated women, and his current analysis examined the changes in context of race and ethnicity in the two states.
He found a 100-mile increase in driving distance to the nearest women’s health clinic—affiliated with a national network of clinics—for Hispanic women decreased the number of breast exams, wellness checkups, mammograms and Pap tests by 14-23 percent. For non-Hispanic white women, he found no statistically significant changes.
