Health Care
Texas Legislature Set to (Slightly) Expand Medical Marijuana Access
Watchdog Organization Calls for (Another) Investigation into Failed Texas Anti-Abortion Group
Former Heidi Group employees say a new effort by the group to secure family planning funding inflates the organization’s track record.
A watchdog organization is calling for a federal investigation into the Heidi Group, a controversial Texas anti-abortion group that is now accused of lying on i...Read More
Texas Republicans Dismiss Research as They Move to Further Defund Planned Parenthood
Jane Nelson, the Senate’s chief budget writer, praised the Legislature’s funding of women’s health programs despite state data and other research that shows they are not meeting the needs of poor women.
Reproductive health advocates have long pointed to Texas as a cautionary tale of what happens when lawmakers prioritize defunding Planned Parenthood and boostin...Read More
Texas Lawmakers Propose Funding Increase to Eliminate Waitlists at Rape Crisis Centers
One-quarter of the state’s crisis centers, which provide free services to survivors of sexual assault, have waitlists between two and five months.
Requests for services at rape crisis centers in Texas have increased by around 25 percent since 2016, driving waitlists for counseling up to eight months in som...Read More
In Texas, Three More Measles Cases and Four New Anti-Vaccine Bills
“I am shocked,” said a vaccine advocate of a slew of new “scare tactic” bills filed amid an ongoing measles outbreak.
Since early March, Texas has confirmed three new measles cases amid an ongoing outbreak, and added several new anti-vaccine measures to the roster of bills file...Read More
Texas Lawmakers are Promoting ‘Anti-New York’ Bills to Limit Abortions
Governor Greg Abbott said there is “growing support for infanticide.” (There is not.)
Conservative Texas lawmakers are seizing on inflammatory and inaccurate national rhetoric around abortions later in pregnancy in an effort to drum up anti-abort...Read More
‘Breakthrough’ Chronicles Nobel Prize Winner Jim Allison’s Long Fight for Science
Forty years after the immunologist testified at the Texas Legislature in favor of teaching evolution, state leaders are still debating its inclusion in school curriculums.
Nobel Prize winner Jim Allison is used to being considered something of a troublemaker. When he was a kid growing up in small-town Alice, Texas, he battled with...Read More
Life and Limb
Each diabetic amputation represents not just a personal tragedy, but a failure of the U.S. health-care system.
by Sophie Novack March 1, 2019 Daniel Zamora still remembers the smell. At first he didn’t realize anything was wrong. A small blister appeared on his lef...Read More
Amid Measles Outbreak, Texas Lawmakers Want to Make it Even Easier to Opt Out of Vaccines
A new bill would ban the Texas health department from tracking vaccine exemptions — a move medical experts say would curb their ability to identify outbreaks.
Texas state Representative Bill Zedler doesn’t understand the fuss over the resurgence of infectious diseases. “When I grew up, I had a lot of these illness...Read More
The ‘Fetal Heartbeat’ Bill Has 57 Authors. All but 3 of them Are Men.
Even two of the state’s largest anti-abortion groups have stopped short of endorsing House Bill 1500 because of its glaring constitutional problems.
In a legislative session so far characterized by a focus on school finance and property tax cuts, growing support for a controversial abortion bill is threateni...Read More