Women in the Rio Grande Valley who are seeking a second-trimester abortion must travel several hours north to access the procedure. Illegal immigrants face an additional hurdle: getting past internal checkpoints. 

State health officials are working to figure out when they'll exclude Planned Parenthood from the Women's Health Program. Meanwhile, the affiliates plan to continue services. 

Planned Parenthood will expand breast health services to more than 40,000 women across five Texas cities, the result of increased donations following Dallas-based Susan G. Komen for the Cure's short-lived decision to halt funding to the organization. 

As state officials prepare to take full control of the once federally funded Texas Women’s Health Program on Nov. 1, they’re running into a series of unexpected challenges, from rule changes to questions about funding. 

A proposed state rule that would prohibit doctors in Texas' Women's Health Program from discussing the option of abortion with their patients — even if the patient asks about it — has drawn the opposition of Texas medical groups.

A two-week summer camp outside of Bryan helps high school students learn how to become effective anti-abortion advocates. Counselors teach campers to adopt a gentler, compassion-based form of persuasion. 

Use our interactive map to chart the locations of health care providers participating in Texas' Women's Health Program. Flip through various map styles to compare women's health statistics statewide, or get a video tutorial here.

What happens when family planning is out of reach for poor and uninsured Texans? In the final segment of our Fertile Ground series, we explore the costs to communities and taxpayers of the state's high rate of unplanned pregnancies. 

In Part 4 of the Tribune's series on family planning, we take a closer look at how abortion has shifted public policy in Texas in recent years — and where the political battle may be headed next. 

As the state of Texas and Planned Parenthood prepare to face off in federal court this week, a recent UT/TT poll shows that favorability ratings for Planned Parenthood are aligned with party affiliation in the state.

E. Smith interviews Dan Patrick about John Carona, Root on the race to replace Ron Paul, Batheja on a nest of open House seats in Tarrant County, Aguilar on a border brawl over a congressional seat in El Paso, Tan on the fight over Planned Parenthood in West Texas, Aaronson maps the holes in the state's health care provider network, M. Smith on who might be the next Texas education commissioner, Ramshaw on social media sabotage, Hamilton and Ramshaw on the reaction to news of job insecurity for UT-Austin's president and Grissom on a knickers-twisting historical marker: The best of our best content from May 7 to 11, 2012.

In part two of "Fertile Ground," our occasional series on the battle over family planning, we go to West Texas to look at a fight that has centered on Planned Parenthood.

A federal judge's ruling this morning means that the state may begin removing Planned Parenthood and other so-called abortion "affiliates" from the Women's Health Program, despite a district judge's Monday ruling to the contrary.

The first part in our occasional series examining the battle over family planning in Texas considers the impact of lawmakers' orders to reduce spending on birth control and cancer screenings. A UT-Austin research group is beginning to track the fallout.

UPDATED: The boards of three regional Planned Parenthood branches — North Texas, Central Texas and the Capital Region — have voted to merge, forming a $29 million-per-year mega-organization with 26 clinics.

UPDATED: Texas health officials have delivered their much-anticipated plans for taking over the Medicaid Women's Health Program. They want to assume full responsibility in November. Federal officials say they're considering the plan. 

In a fiscal switcheroo, Texas could free up state dollars to fund the embattled Women's Health Program by seeking federal block grants for other programs, the state's health commissioner wrote in a letter to House Democrats on Tuesday. 

It took years of bipartisan efforts for the Women's Health Program to even begin. Today, it is the subject of a bitter political divide. No one should be surprised.