On February 3, the Texas Policy Evaluation Project (TxPEP) released a new study documenting the severe impact of Texas' decision to bar Planned Parenthood from accessing state family-planning funds. Using pharmaceutical claims data and state program records, TxPEP analyzed “rates of contraceptive-method provision, method continuation through the program, and childbirth covered by Medicaid before and after the Planned Parenthood exclusion.” The results reflected “adverse changes in the provision of contraception” for Texas women, and a subsequent “increase in the rate of childbirth covered by Medicaid.”

Writing for Vox, Sarah Kliff highlighted these findings, arguing that they directly refute a consistent conservative media myth that women's health clinics could easily replace Planned Parenthood in many communities. Kliff wrote that although “some have argued women would just seek care elsewhere, this new research shows the opposite: When Planned Parenthood becomes less accessible, women just get less care.” In an interview with Vox, TxPEP researcher Amanda Stevenson said the study “contradicts the claim that other providers will simply take up the slack and that they'll meet the demand currently being met by Planned Parenthood providers.”

This latest research adds to the mounting set of evidence that political attacks on Planned Parenthood have dire consequences for the communities they serve. From Vox:

Texas has long been at the forefront of the battle to defund Planned Parenthood.

In 2013, the state successfully cut the network of clinics out of its public family planning program for low-income women.

Now researchers at the University of Texas have figured out what happened next: Fewer women filled birth control prescriptions -- and more low-income women had babies.

The new study, published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, is the first to look at what happens to women when a state specifically excludes Planned Parenthood from public programs. While some have argued that women would just seek care elsewhere, this new research shows the opposite: When Planned Parenthood becomes less accessible, women just get less care.

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Congressional Republicans have, so far, failed to defund Planned Parenthood on a national level -- despite multiple attempts to do so.

This new Texas study is important because it demonstrates that there is a risk that comes with cutting Planned Parenthood out of public programs: Women won't get the care that they used to, and births can increase as a result.

“This directly contradicts the claim that other providers will simply take up the slack and that they'll meet the demand currently being met by Planned Parenthood providers,” Stevenson says. “We can say, after this study, that isn't the case in Texas.”