Providing contraceptive funding for low-income women saves money by preventing unintended pregnancies. It really shouldn’t have been something that required additional proof. However, it did, and now the Texas legislature is seeing the consequences of the budget cuts to family planning programs.

Via the New York Times:

The latest Health and Human Services Commission projections being circulated among Texas lawmakers indicate that during the 2014-15 biennium, poor women will deliver an estimated 23,760 more babies than they would have, as a result of their reduced access to state-subsidized birth control. The additional cost to taxpayers is expected to be as much as $273 million — $103 million to $108 million to the state’s general revenue budget alone — and the bulk of it is the cost of caring for those infants under Medicaid.

Those costs won’t just go away after birth, either. The additional children will likely continue needing health care from the state, and at least some of the women who have given birth will have additional health issues from the pregnancy, either just simple follow up for issues like post partum care, potential infections from c-sections or episiotomies, problems associated with weight gain, diabetes, or high blood pressure developed during pregnancy or even more serious health problems like pelvic and bladder issues.

But hey, at least they managed to keep some dollars from Planned Parenthood, right?