Sophie Novack
By Sophie Novack:
How Anti-Abortion Activists are Training Their ‘Next Generation of Pro-Life Leaders’
Professor Trill
Rapper Bun B on Port Arthur, resilience and the meaning of trill.
The Bayou City loves Bernard “Bun B” Freeman so much that he’s been given the title “Houston’s unofficial mayor.” But the Grammy-nominated renaissance man of Texas rap actually hails from Port Arthur, a struggling refinery town 90 miles east. The … Read More
Will Hurricane Harvey Recovery Sink or Save a Texas City Already Fighting for Survival?
by Michael Barajas and Sophie Novack July 30, 2018 On a Friday morning in mid-May, Beatrice Sanders stepped outside her FEMA trailer to find a port-a-potty parked in her driveway. At first, it seemed like a wonderful surprise, and perfectly … Read More
Documentary Follows a Family’s Fight to Change Texas Law that Turned Brain-Dead Pregnant Woman into an ‘Incubator’
62 Days is meant to bring attention to laws that “punish women and put them in extraordinary circumstances where their choices and autonomy are dismissed,” the filmmaker said.
For 62 days, Marlise Muñoz’s family was forced to watch as her body deteriorated. The 33-year-old paramedic had suffered a pulmonary embolism two days before Thanksgiving in 2013; by the time her husband found her facedown in the kitchen, her … Read More
Three Things the Judge Says He’ll Consider in Ruling on Texas Fetal Burial Law
Of primary concern is whether the law would limit patients’ access to abortion or miscarriage care.
As the weeklong trial over Texas’ fetal burial law wrapped up on Friday, Federal District Judge David Ezra gave a good indication of what he’ll be focusing on in his decision. The plaintiffs — a collection of Texas abortion clinics … Read More
‘Shamed and Stigmatized’: Austin Woman Forced by Hospital to Bury Fetal Remains Testifies Against State Law
Blake Norton, who shared her experience publicly for the first time with the Observer earlier this year, testified in federal court that the forced fetal burial left her “shocked, upset, confused.”
On the first day of the trial over Texas’ fetal burial law, abortion providers had a rejoinder to the claim that they don’t know how patients feel about the requirement: Blake Norton. On Monday, Norton fought back tears as she … Read More
A Timely, Enraging Documentary Humanizes the Rape Kit Backlog Crisis
Texas lawmakers have turned to crowdfunding to test rape kits, absent adequate state funding.
In 1996, just days after her 17th birthday, Helena was abducted at knifepoint from a self-service car wash near her home in Los Angeles, held for 10 hours and repeatedly sexually assaulted. When she was finally freed, she says, the … Read More
New Lawsuit Challenges Dozens of Texas Anti-Abortion Restrictions
Two years after a landmark Supreme Court decision, abortion providers and nonprofits are using the ruling to challenge a slew of laws from the last two decades.
In a lawsuit filed Thursday, reproductive health advocates are challenging dozens of Texas anti-abortion laws that span two decades and encompass a wide range of restrictions. Two years after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned major provisions of Texas’ omnibus House … Read More
Trump Sides with Ken Paxton to Argue Pre-Existing Conditions Protections are Unconstitutional
In a brief filed Thursday night, the DOJ said it would not defend the ACA in a lawsuit brought by Texas and other Republican states.
Millions of Texans with pre-existing medical conditions cannot be denied coverage by insurance companies under protections established in the Affordable Care Act. Now, Attorney General Ken Paxton wants to throw patients with pre-existing conditions back to the mercy of insurance … Read More
‘We Love Our Neighbors, but It’s a Sin’: A Dispatch from a ‘Sex Ed Sitout’
Even though a majority of Texans support evidence-based sex education, religious right advocates have lobbied against teaching contraception in schools.
On a Monday morning in late April, Marcia Lamb’s 6-year-old son, Braeden, is running around the playground at Austin’s Zilker Park, making the most of an unusual reprieve from school. Braeden and Marcia drove from Corpus Christi that morning to … Read More