Trish Major and Anice Greiner are working for women’s healthcare (Photo by Kathy Tran).
How a group of East Dallas church women and friends organized to improve women’s access to affordable healthcare
It was Jan. 21, 2017, Inauguration Day. Neighbor Trish Major was downtown at the Women’s March, exercising her right to free speech and peaceful assembly, when she received a text from Planned Parenthood, an organization she had supported.
The text asked if she would be willing to organize for women’s health issues. The result? The creation of East Dallas Persistent Women.
“And hope,” Major adds.
Instead of heading home, storing the protest signs in the garage and diving into sheet cake, Major started making phone calls and sending emails to friends, most of whom she knew from her church, Greenland Hills United Methodist. “I wanted to start with a small group of women that I know can listen actively and act communally.”
She ended her email with a positive note: “One thing I have learned from experience is that the more you work for justice, the more hopeful you become.”
Everyone she contacted came to the first meeting. Some brought friends. “I thought maybe a couple would show up just to humor me. But they all showed up,” Major says. “I found out they had all been eating ice cream on their couches since November, wondering what they could do. They were actually grateful for the invitation to become active.”
Major knows activism. Over the years, she was involved in several issues, from nuclear disarmament to the Iraq War. But she had yet to delve into women’s health, and now seemed the right time. “I’m 58. I was 13 when Roe v Wade came to the Supreme Court. I thought this was done, but in the past few years, the clock is being reversed, not only in regards to abortion, but birth control and sex education. All sorts of ways that women control their bodies and their destinies are being taken away.”
Concerned about the legislature’s cuts to Planned Parenthood — “the folks who really know how to run a healthcare system for poor women” — Major and friends felt the need to act. They named their group East Dallas Persistent Women, “persistent” a reference to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s comment about Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s determined objections during confirmation hearings.
The group also declared a mission statement: “Organizing locally to protect affordable women’s healthcare in Texas and our nation.”
First step for EDPW was to study up on Planned Parenthood and the state of women’s healthcare in Texas and the nation. Budget cuts had left a gap in services, resulting in the state of Texas eventually creating the Healthy Texas Women program, with a website designed to guide women to healthcare providers who were operating under HTW guidelines.
EDPW decided to find out if the program was being implemented properly across the state. One EDPW was Anice Greiner, former comptroller of a nonprofit and admitted “numbers nerd” who was more than familiar with creating spreadsheets, a handy skill for the group’s study.
In addition, the daughter of a group member volunteered her expertise as a research scientist to guide and advise the ambitious project, an important detail given that EDPW knew their study would be taken seriously only if it was unbiased and grounded in statistically reliable survey methods.
Over a period of two months, 12 volunteers called a representative sample of HTW providers across Texas, numbering almost 1,500 in all. They found that many are listed in error. Some are duplicates; some don’t provide the services listed on the HTW website; and some are not women’s health providers at all.
Volunteers ended up, in some cases, reaching anesthesiologists, orthopedic surgeons, dermatologists, oncologists and other specialists. Perhaps the strangest connection they made from the list of providers was “the private line of someone named Louis.”
Each volunteer identified herself only as a woman seeking healthcare and stuck to a script, asking simple questions: Do you accept patients in the HTW program? Could I get a pap smear, breast exam, birth control and STD testing? When is your next available appointment?
These Persistent Women, during their hours of phone calls, took copious notes. They then compiled the data. So just how well was HTW serving healthcare needs of low-income women? “I can’t say I was surprised by the results,” Greiner says. “I was saddened. It was worse than I thought.”
Their study, titled “Healthy Skepticism: The Inadequacy of ‘Healthy Texas Women’ in 2018,” yielded alarming results.
Their survey of 54 counties in Texas found more than 66 percent of providers listed as HTW providers do not provide care through HTW. As far as providers listed for Dallas County, almost 82 percent do not provide care under the program. In essence, the system renders many women without access to adequate baseline care.
Study in hand, they hit the floor running, visiting their elected officials, Republican and Democratic state representatives and senators. They also visited candidates for office. Responses to the study ran the gamut from, “Thanks, here’s the door” to “Wow, let’s run with this.” Most, seemed interested and concerned, Major says.
News of the study made its way to local radio, television and newspapers. Media coverage eventually reached as far as Houston and Austin. The group continues to work toward a broader, statewide audience and awareness of the report. “We want to get the word out to everyone. It’s not a local report, it’s a statewide report,” Greiner says.
The work continues for EDPW: writing letters, keeping track of legislation and traveling to Austin on lobby days for Planned Parenthood. This summer is especially busy for the group. “We will be devoting most of our energy this summer to working on the campaigns of more far-sighted and empathetic candidates for state offices,” Major says.
A happy side effect: this group of church friends is showing a younger generation how it’s done. Greiner grins as she recalls a comment from her 16-year-old granddaughter: “What a great role model you are!”
For more information: edpw.org
