|
Candidate's Name: Walter Wm. Hofheinz
Office Sought: U.S. House, 32nd District of Texas
Address: P.O. Box 25123, Dallas, Texas 75225
Telephone: 214.363.2400
Email: walter@hofheinz2002.org
Every effort will be made to include any comments you provide in the space designated. However, space is limited, so WHFPT-PAN reserves the right to paraphrase or shorten comments to accommodate space concerns.
Hofheinz general response:
I have attached a copy of my general statement regarding the role and scope of action through government.
I strongly believe in individual liberty and freedom from government interference in personal choices. One of the fundamental differences in viewpoint that finds expression in our society today is the conflict between those who want to tell everyone else what to do and how to live their lives, and those who want to live and let live. I hold to the second of these views.
My belief that education is a key to responsible behavior is reflected in many of the responses that follow.
This questionnaire, as well as others answered, will be posted in full on my website, where other materials regarding my positions, background, and campaign may be found.
1 ) Non-profit women's health and family planning clinics provided 451,329 low-income women with preventive services in 1999. However, there are still over 1.2 million low-income women without access to these services. If any of these women become pregnant, they would qualify for Medicaid prenatal and delivery services at an average cost of over $6,000 each. Yet, providing family planning services costs less than $200 per patient, per year. This amount covers not only a physical exam, method education, counseling, and a contraceptive method of choice, but also health screening for diabetes, anemia, cervical cancer, breast cancer, vaginal infection, hypertension, kidney disease or infection, and sexually transmitted diseases. For most of these low-income women, this is their only access to health care.
Do you support subsidized funding of women's health and family planning services for low-income women?
Hofheinz response:
Yes. The need for increased funding for such services is inextricably intertwined with the severely dysfunctional nature of our national health care system. We need a basic reformulation of the way in which health care services are provided and compensated. I am currently preparing a comprehensive position statement on health care.
2) In the United States, almost half of all pregnancies are unintended, with half of these pregnancies ending in abortion. In Texas, approximately half of all live births are paid for by Medicaid, costing the Taxpayers almost $400 million in 1998. According to the Scripps Howard Texas Poll in 2000, 67% of Texans support increased funding for family planning services and counseling to reduce the number on unintended pregnancies!
Do you support increased funding for family planning services in order to allow additional low income women to have access to these services?
Hofheinz response:
Yes. I believe that each person is responsible for making decisions that affect their life, and should have access to the information needed to do so in an informed manner.
3) Fifty percent of unmarried women and sixty percent of unmarried men age 15-19 have had sexual intercourse. According to the Texas Department of Health, teenagers account for over 20,000 births, and almost 20,000 teens were diagnosed and treated for bacterial sexually transmitted diseases. According to a national study, adolescents who had received contraceptive education are 33% more likely to use some form of contraception than teens that have not.
Do you support the provision of age-appropriate, locally approved, abstinence-based education, including medically accurate information on sexually transmitted diseases, HIV and AIDS, pregnancy prevention and contraceptives?
Hofheinz response:
Yes. I believe that each person is responsible for making decisions that affect their life, and should have access to the information needed to do so in an informed manner.
4) Although sexual activity among high school students has decreased, and condom use has risen, teens in the U.S. have one of the highest pregnancy rates in the western world. It is twice as high as in England and Wales, France and Canada; three times as high as in Sweden; and seven times as high as in the Netherlands. A sexually active teenager not using contraceptives has a 90% chance of getting pregnant within one year. Teenagers also have a much higher rate of contacting a sexually transmitted disease or infection.
Do you support the provision of confidential family planning services for sexually active teenagers?
Hofheinz response:
Yes. I believe that each person, including a sexually active teenager, is responsible for making decisions that affect his or her life, and should have access to the information and resources needed to do so in an informed and effective manner.
5) Title XX (Social Services Block Grant) is used by Texas and other states to fund preventive services such as family planning, shelters for victims of domestic violence, alternative care for the aged and disabled, child and adult protective services and child care. Unfortunately, every year for several years now, Congress has cut funding for Title XX. This has resulted in many vulnerable citizens losing the care and services they need. The loss of these funds has certainly been felt in the Texas family planning community where agencies have been forced to reduce the number of patients they serve and ask low-income women to wait for needed care.
Do you oppose cuts to the Title XX Social Services Block Grant, and do you support restoration of these funds?
Hofheinz response:
Generally, I oppose all block grant programs (see general principles), but would support expansion of these programs pending replacement by direct programs.
6) Until the U. S. Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion in the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973 the leading cause of maternal death among women in the U.S. was the incidence of complications suffered from illegal abortions. The legalization of abortion in the U.S. and other countries has enabled women to obtain earlier, safer abortions. Today, 89% of abortions are performed during the first twelve weeks of pregnancy, and 95% of take place during the first fifteen weeks of pregnancy. Only 1% takes place after 20 weeks of pregnancy. In 1973, the risk of dying from an abortion was 3.4 deaths per 100,000 legal abortions. Now it is 0.4 deaths per 100,000 legal abortions.
Do you support a woman's right to a safe and legal abortions as set forth in the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade?
Hofheinz response:
Yes. I believe that each person is responsible for making decisions that affect their life, and have a strong right to privacy regarding such decisions. Governmental restrictions on the right of an individual to make choices should be as narrowly drawn as possible, limited to circumstances in which there is a compelling state interest, and within the fundamental task of government as framed in my statement of general principles. Governmental action regarding medical treatment determined by an informed adult is not appropriate.
7) Many developing nations look to the U.S. for aid and support in several areas, including family planning. Certainly, in these countries family planning saves lives, improves the health and well being of women and their children, and increases the opportunity for women to care and provide for their families. Without U.S. aid family planning services will like[ly] disappear in these poor countries.
Do you support increases in funding for international family planning programs?
Hofheinz response:
Yes. U.S. foreign policy should be designed to enhance to standard of living in developing countries and affirm fundamental human rights and liberties, with family planning and education essential components of that policy.
8) Education and improving the public school system is a priority for all Texans. In Congress and in many state legislatures, there have been attempts either to take funds from public schools to subsidize private and religious schools through voucher programs or to give tax credits to families choosing to send their children to private or religious schools. During the last three sessions of the Texas Legislature, attempts to create a pilot voucher system failed.
Do you oppose any expenditure of public tax funds for private and religious schools?
Hofheinz response:
Yes, within the context of the background provided. Market-based decision systems are not appropriate for allocation of public funding. Such decisions are properly political decisions subject to public debate and policy, therefore public funds should not be allocated to the general expense of private or religious education at the K-12 levels through individual allocation mechanisms such as vouchers or tax credits. I am not opposed to access to shared infrastructure such as shared library services or network services which are made available to all schools.
9) Emergency Contraception (EC) is often referred to as "the morning after pill". It has been available for more than 25 years and could prevent as many as 1.7 million unintended pregnancies and 800,000 abortions each year if readily available to women seeking it. Unfortunately, some individuals and groups have falsely claimed that EC is an abortiofacient. These groups have pressured hospitals and pharmacies to suspend permanently EC. Yet, the American College of OBGYNs states strongly that EC is a contraceptive, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration states that EC will not work if the woman is pregnant.
Do you support legislation that would allow Emergency Contraception to be dispensed by licensed pharmacists over the counter?
Hofheinz response:
Yes. I believe that each person is responsible for making decisions that affect their life, and should have access to the resources which effectively allow them to do so.
WHFPT-PAN needs your responses as soon as possible, but certainly before January
31! You may complete this questionnaire and either mail or fax it to WHFPT-PAN.
Thank you.
WHFPT-PAN P,0. Box, 3668 Austin, Texas 78764 Fax: 512/448-3373
Walter Wm. Hofheinz
Hofheinz for Congress
2401 Turtle Creek Blvd.,
Dallas, Texas 75219
214.363.2400
walter@hofheinz2002.org