"This is raw politics, and it's women's health that's on the line," said Sarah Wheat, interim co-CEO of Planned Parenthood Texas Capital Region.

Deuell, a physician, has repeatedly said he had to include that provision to appease pro-life groups and to get the bill through the Republican, anti-abortion dominated House. He said without it there was no chance of the legislation passing through the lower chamber.

"I thought it would save the program–that's what I wanted to do," Deuell said.

Deuell was counting on Rep. Garnet Coleman, a House Democrat, to be able to pass the bill through his chamber and give Deuell some credibility with Democrats in the Senate.

But even if Deuell could get the bill voted favorably out of the Senate, he's run out of time to get the bill to the floor of the House for a vote. Less than two weeks remain in the legislative session.

The Women's Health Program is a Medicaid program that provides 90,000 low-income women exams, screenings and birth control. The program generates $9 in federal funding for every $1 dollar spent by Texas, a match Deuell said makes it a good investment for the state.

Planned Parenthood has argued that Deuell's bill shreds the safety net that is often the only health care many low-income women receive. The organization is the program's largest provider, stating that nearly half the women in the program receive their primary health and family planning from one of their clinics.

"Those women will have to find other means to get their family planning, and there are other means available," said Deuell, who has provided family planning services to uninsured women in his own practice.

Though none of Planned Parenthood's state or federal dollars go to abortions, gutting family planning funding has repeatedly been a top priority for conservative lawmakers both state and nationwide. But Deuell said family planning and contraception need to be funded to decrease unwanted pregnancies and abortion.

"I don't think that position is inconsistent with being pro-life," he said.

Compounding the issue is a bigger fight led by conservative lawmakers in the House who succeeded in stripping more than $60 million from family planning services and redirecting the funds to different items in the budget. The Senate version of the budget spends more than the House, and negotiators have started hashing out the differences in funding in a conference committee.

But with House members digging in firmly against spending any more on family planning, senators have a hard fight ahead.

The Legislative Budget Board predicts that if the House cuts stay intact, nearly 300,000 women will lose family planning services and cost nearly $100 million in Medicaid births over the next two years.

"It's incredibly devastating from a policy standpoint, fiscally and in terms of real lives," Wheat said. "These steps show an extraordinary disregard for women's health and the negative impact it will suffer."

But in a Legislature where bills never truly die, Deuell hints that there could be other avenues for the program to be renewed.

"We're not done yet," he said.