Billionaire and former presidential candidate Ross Perot’s foundation announced yesterday that it will donate $1 million to Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas, the Huffington Post reports. Governor Rick Perry cut off the women’s health network’s state and federal funding last year — including funds that went to its preventative and basic health-care programs for uninsured women — citing the overarching pro-abortion stance. (He called this a “win for women.”) The abortion restrictions signed into law in June have already closed three Planned Parenthood clinics. Perot’s wife Margot said in a written statement that the foundation recognized “the need to further inform the public of the mission of this great organization and the need to support it at this critical time.”
Better funded, at the moment, is Texas women’s health advocate State Senator Wendy Davis. In addition to pulling in $1.2 million in small individual donations after her fame-making filibuster, according to Politico, Democratic strategists are gearing up to throw their weight (read: money) behind a statewide run for Davis. A win against likely GOP nominee Greg Abbott is still a long shot, according to a New York Times report — even if he keeps up the “Retard Barbie” stuff. But a $40M Davis campaign for governor would draw Republican funds from closer races in Ohio, Florida, and Michigan, and set the stage for 2018, when she could run for governor again or for the U.S. Senate.
