Watchdog Organization Calls for (Another) Investigation into Failed Texas Anti-Abortion Group
By: Sophie Novack, Texas Observer, March 21, 2019
A watchdog organization is calling for a federal investigation into the Heidi Group, a controversial Texas anti-abortion group that is now accused of lying on its new application for family planning funds. This comes just months after the state health agency canceled the Heidi Group’s multimillion-dollar contracts after the group served a fraction of the patients it pledged to treat. The state’s Office of the Inspector General is also conducting an investigation into more than $1 million in questionable spending.
The Campaign for Accountability, a left-leaning Washington, D.C., nonprofit that has tracked the Heidi Group since it was awarded $7 million worth of Texas women’s health contracts in 2016, sent a letter on Thursday to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services requesting an investigation into alleged errors on the group’s application for funding under the federal Title X family planning program. The letter is a response to a Wednesday report from the Houston Chronicle that the Heidi Group is included in a Title X grant application by the Catholic, California-based Obria Group. The application also includes two other Texas crisis pregnancy centers: Midland Community Healthcare Services, and the Community Wellness Clinic of Conroe.