Maternal health advocates said the bill — originally pitched as a one-year extension — could reduce the state’s maternal mortality rate and offer vital help to mothers with conditions like postpartum depression or health complications in the months after giving birth.
Women’s Health Program
Posted in
Texas Legislature 2021
Despite high rate of teen pregnancies, Texas lawmakers unlikely to expand Children’s Health Insurance Program to cover birth control
Texas ranks ninth in the nation in teen pregnancy. But lawmakers have neglected to pass a bill expanding CHIP to cover contraceptives.
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Texas Legislature 2021
Republican lawmakers push to make Texas’ anti-abortion laws among the most restrictive in the nation
With the GOP in control of state government and “a favorable backstop from the courts, it’s going to be a no-holds-barred approach for Republicans on abortion,” one political science professor said.
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Demographics
Low-income Texans struggle to find new doctors as state officials boot Planned Parenthood off Medicaid
The state’s health commission gave Planned Parenthood’s Medicaid patients until Feb. 3 to find new doctors. Experts say there are limited places low-income patients can go, in part because Texas already has a shortage of doctors who accept Medicaid due to the state’s low payment rates.
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Demographics
Texas gives Medicaid recipients using Planned Parenthood until Feb. 3 to find new health care provider
The extension comes after the conservative U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in November sided with Texas officials who have long tried to block Planned Parenthood from participating in Medicaid, the federal-state health insurance program for the poor.
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Coronavirus in Texas
Eight months into the pandemic, this women’s health clinic in rural Texas struggles to meet demand for care
At a housing unit turned health clinic in rural Brown County, the director of a family planning clinic laughs at the idea of offering tele-health visits to limit the virus’ spread: “Where we are, that is just not an option for us.”
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Health care
Texas officials walk back $15 million proposed cuts to women’s and children’s health services
The changes to the budget proposal come after lawmakers and advocates protested the previous plan would hurt vulnerable Texans.
Posted inState Government
Anti-abortion law spreads in East Texas as “sanctuary city for the unborn” movement expands
A growing number of town councils have been passing abortion bans.
Posted in
Texas Legislature 2019
Medicaid, opioids and abortion: Health care issues to expect this Texas legislative session
Amid uncertainty about the federal health law, state legislators will tackle a variety of issues during the session, from abortion to mental health to opioids to funding for Medicaid.
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Health care
State cancels health contracts with anti-abortion Heidi Group
Texas Health and Human Services Commission officials said in an email that “it has become clear that the Heidi Group is unable to come into compliance” and that the organization would no longer be part of the state’s Family Planning Program or the Healthy Texas Women program as of Dec. 11.