I read Crystal Pecina's http://mycountryilovethee.blogspot.com/2011/12/helping-others-instead-of-ourselves.html. Although without a link I am not sure of the original article Ms. Pecina is refrencing I do see two upsetting topics in what she has written.

I have some concern with the actions made by both Bush and Perry as I am sure Ms. Pecina does. For the United States to send a former President to Africa to educate women on cervical and breast cancers is certainly a great thing. In Ms. Pecina's article she states that the same important education is being denied to our own US women because of budget cuts. Ms. Pecina says that it is "hard providing this care to low income women." Hard to educate low income US females yet not too hard to travel all the way to Africa to educate the women there? I think all women should be educated on their bodies and dangers they may face. But when it is too expensive to even educate our own women here in the States should we really be out sourcing former Presidents to travel across the world to give the same service we deny our own to others? Many women die from cervical and breast cancers who may have been able to survive if they were educated enough to detect the cancers early on. By spending money on traveling to educate our country is letting uneducated women here die.

Ms. Pecina also says in her article that Perry boasts about cutting two thirds of Texas' family planning budget. After looking at the statistics from  http://texaslsg.org/texasonthebrink/ I think family planning is one of the things our state desperately needs and should never be cut from the budget. Texas is 2nd in birth rate, 2nd in population under 18, and 4th in percent of children living under poverty. Those numbers tell us that lots of babies are being born to people who cant afford to support their children. Family planning is one way to provide birth control to people who wouldn't otherwise be able to afford it. Texas is dead last in percent of pregnant women rreceiving prenatal care in first trimester. And look at the statistics here,

• In 2008, the birth rate for ages 15-19 in Texas was 63.4 per every 1,000 people, compared to 41.5 in the U.S., giving Texas the third highest teen birth rate in the nation.[i]
• According to a 2009 study of sex education materials from 96 percent of all Texas schools, only 4 percent of schools in Texas teach about pregnancy and STD prevention in schools.[ii]
• 3.7 million Texas students are not taught basic information in public schools about STD prevention and unplanned pregnancies, and 25 percent of Texas school districts have no formal policy regulating sex education.[iii]
• 41 percent of sex education materials used in Texas school districts contains factual errors.[iv]

53 percent of Texas students have had sexual intercourse, compared with 48 percent nationwide; 17 percent of Texas students have had sexual intercourse with four or more persons in their life, compared with 15 percent nationwide; and 43.6 percent of Texas students did not use a condom during their last instance of sexual intercourse, compared with 38.5 percent nationwide

It is alarming how badly Texas needs a family planning budget. I believe Texas should look at improving its family planning instead of decreasing it. And by not only allowing for a larger budget to educate family planning we can also budget to educate women on cervical on breast cancer. These are some extremely important issues and Texas needs to make sure the entire state is educated on these matters before cutting spending or taking these matters to other countries.