Five years after Texas’ first COVID death, the state spends less on public health, vaccination rates have dropped and a distrust of authority has taken hold.
Health care
In-depth reporting on public health, healthcare policy, hospitals, and wellness issues shaping communities across Texas, from The Texas Tribune.
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Health care
Texas Republicans seek to clarify when doctors can intervene under abortion bans
A Senate bill filed Friday does not expand abortion access, but aims to give doctors clarity while operating under laws that come with up to life in prison.
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Health care
Paxton says trans Texans can’t use court orders to change sex on driver’s licenses, birth certificates
Per the attorney general’s nonbinding opinion, state agencies should change gender markers on government documents back to a person’s sex assigned at birth.
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Texas Legislature 2025
Will lawmakers let Texas’ maternal mortality committee review abortion deaths?
The Legislature is considering bills that would lift long-standing restrictions on how Texas’ panel can investigate maternal deaths and near-misses.
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Criminal Justice
Following Trump’s lead, Gov. Abbott pushes state agencies to end telework
The directive comes as some state agencies have downsized their office spaces after the pandemic forced many employees to work remotely.
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Texas measles outbreak
With crumbling public health infrastructure, rural Texas scrambles to respond to measles
The measles outbreak in rural Texas has exposed how hospital buildings are ill-equipped. Meanwhile, long distances between providers makes testing people and transporting samples difficult.
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Health care
Obstacles slow Texas’ effort to improve conditions at substance abuse recovery homes
A new law was meant to uphold standards at homes where substance abusers are trying to rebuild their lives. But compliance is proving difficult.
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Health care
Texas Senate advances bill to start a $3 billion dementia research fund
The legislation would require voters to approve the $3 billion start-up cost, and then the fund would be maintained at no more than $300 million annually.
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Texas Legislature 2025
Why a Rio Grande Valley hospital is helping to feed its patients
As the Edinburg facility and others seek to assist people experiencing food insecurity, state lawmakers have more than a dozen bills that could tackle Texas’ food deserts.
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Texas measles outbreak
West Texans, Mennonites at center of measles outbreak choose medical freedom over vaccine mandates
In rural West Texas, measles has sickened nearly 150 people, most of them unvaccinated. A school-age child has died. The virus is spreading among Gaines County’s Mennonite community, where government mandates are not trusted.
