With the Thursday midnight deadline for bills to pass on second reading in the House, I figured this would be a good time to take a look at the status of some major legislation and legislative priorities. There are two weeks left in the regular session, and the specter of overtime is hazy but present. [...]
Posts Tagged ‘abortion’
Zaffirini and Uresti stand against needless abortion restrictions
Good to hear, but given their histories it’s wise to be vigilant. Texas Republicans are one vote short of passing a controversial abortion bill in the Senate — and the fate of the legislation now rests squarely on the shoulders of two South Texas Democrats. Sens. Carlos Uresti, D-San Antonio, and Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, oppose [...]
House debates its budget
As you know, yesterday was Budgetpalooza in the House. The House budget puts more money into public education and less into health and human services than a Senate proposal that passed the upper chamber last month. “No one is or will be entirely happy with this bill, but there is something for everyone this year,” [...]
You can’t undo the damage to women’s health
At the very end of this story, in which Rep. John Zerwas and Sen. Charles Schwertner, both of whom are physicians in real life, say that they (mostly) stand with Rick Perry on not expanding Medicaid, they also say this: Regarding the budget cuts in the last legislative session to family planning and women’s health [...]
The war on women continues apace
Honestly, I’m surprised that it’s taken as long as it has for this to happen. Abortion clinics in Texas may soon face harsh new state requirements that pro-choice advocates say could greatly reduce access to abortion. Sens Bob Deuell (R-Greenville), Donna Campbell (R-New Braunfels) and Charles Schwertner (R-Georgetown) filed a bill this morning that would [...]
Smaller WHP provider list back up
Maybe they got it right this time. A revised list of Texas Women’s Health Program providers — with 965 fewer doctors and clinics — has returned to the state’s website. [...] The HHSC had previously stated that the Texas WHP had 3,500 participating providers, roughly 1,000 more than the number of providers that participated in [...]
The state begins preparing its excuses for its WHP screwup
The fail is strong in this one. State health officials continue to insist that they have signed up more than enough providers to replace Planned Parenthood across most of Texas. Areas of limited coverage — including San Angelo, Corsicana and Paris — are being scoured to find health care providers willing to join the Women’s [...]
Where are the doctors?
The Morning News tries to verify that the Dallas-area providers listed for the new Texas Women’s Health Program are in fact providing health care services to the women in this program as advertised. It goes about as well as you’d expect. A Dallas Morning News survey of 336 contacts listed online for the program showed [...]
Yet another Planned Parenthood ruling coming today
Today is the last day that federal money will be sent to Texas for the Women’s Health Program – it officially gets cut off on January 1. The state tried and failed to get an injunction forcing the feds to keep the spigot open even as it barred Planned Parenthood from participating. For its part, [...]
State fails to get injunction against terminating Womens Health Program funds
As you know, last year the Lege passed a law that forbade Planned Parenthood from participating in the Women’s Health Program on the grounds that PP does abortions even though none of the PP clinics that participate in the Women’s Health Program perform abortions – they’re in a separate organization all together. The federal government [...]
Dude, I’m serious!
House Speaker Joe Straus is ready to have a “serious” legislative session. You know, totally unlike the last one. Despite organized efforts to unseat him, Texas House Speaker Joe Straus said Wednesday he is confident his colleagues will re-elect him to the post so he can focus the 2013 legislative session on “serious issues” for [...]
Perry’s abortion obsession
I suppose the only surprise to this is that it’s taken him this long. Proclaiming his ultimate goal to eliminate abortion at any stage, Gov. Rick Perry on Tuesday said he would back legislation to ban abortion in Texas after 20 weeks, the point at which he said a fetus can experience pain. He said [...]
Planned Parenthood files another lawsuit
Keeping the heat on the state. As a tumultuous year in women’s health draws to a close, Planned Parenthood is turning up the heat on Texas, today filing a new lawsuit that challenge the state’s move to ban the nonprofit from participation in a state-run and funded Texas Women’s Health Program. While previous lawsuits have [...]
Dan Patrick wants to play doctor
Clearly, the man missed his calling. Before Texas’ abortion sonogram law passed last legislative session, some women seeking to end pregnancies in rural communities relied on telemedicine, with physicians — working in partnership with medical technicians or nurses — administering prescription drugs via videoconference to induce early-stage abortions. If new legislation filed by Sen. Dan [...]
Planned Parenthood gains a stay in state lawsuit
If you’re confused by where the Women’s Health Program stands in Texas, I don’t blame you. Planned Parenthood will continue participating in the Women’s Health Program — for now. Travis County District Judge Stephen Yelenosky on Thursday approved a temporary injunction to delay the state’s implementation of the “Affiliate Ban Rule,” which would bar the [...]
News flash: Birth control prevents unwanted pregnancies
I know, I’m as shocked as you are. Free birth control led to dramatically lower rates of abortions and teen births, a large study concludes. The findings were eagerly anticipated and come as a bitterly contested Obama administration policy is poised to offer similar coverage. The project tracked more than 9,000 women in St. Louis, [...]
Testifying about the Women’s Health Program
More hearings like this, please. The Texas Department of State Health Services got an earful today from lawmakers and women’s health advocates at a public meeting in Austin to discuss proposed rules for the Texas Women’s Health Program — specifically, the state’s plan to sacrifice 90 percent of federal funding for the program in order [...]
This is what a government takeover of health care looks like
It’s happening right here in Texas. Texas officials express confidence that thousands of low-income women will be able to find new providers should Planned Parenthood be excluded from the state’s Women’s Health Program, but Xelena Gonzalez does not think woman should have to make that search. “They are playing politics,” the 33-year-old San Antonio librarian [...]
Fifth Circuit strikes again
Dammit. A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that Texas did not act unconstitutionally when it moved to expel Planned Parenthood from a health and contraceptive care program for low-income women. The ruling overturned a preliminary injunction, issued in April by U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel of Austin, that banned Texas from enforcing rules designed to [...]
“Collateral damage”
How’s that war on women going? In the year since deep cuts to family planning funding took effect, the impact has become apparent. An Observer review of state records has found that 146 clinics have lost state funds, clumped mainly in the Panhandle, Central Texas and on the border with Mexico. More than 60 of [...]
The first rule of women’s health
Is don’t talk about things that make certain Republicans queasy. 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. The groups take issue specifically with [...]
Yvonne Gutierrez: Republican support for women’s health?
The following is from a series of guest posts that I will be presenting over the next few weeks. We all know there is a lot at stake for the 2012 election cycle. All eyes are on Washington but the old adage is true — all politics is local. State Legislative races are crucial. Especially [...]
A trio of trial updates
Planned Parenthood versus Texas: A ruling affecting health care, including contraception, for some 130,000 low-income Texas women probably won’t come until late this year as Planned Parenthood and the state of Texas plan for mid-October oral arguments in their legal fight. The state is appealing a preliminary injunction that U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel granted [...]
Fifth Circuit lifts its stay of Planned Parenthood injunction
Whiplash alert! U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel on Monday granted a preliminary injunction sought by Planned Parenthood in the case, saying the state couldn’t bar the group until the lawsuit is decided. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott quickly sought a stay at the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The stay was granted by Judge Jerry E. Smith [...]
Texas gets stay of injunction
And just like that, we’re back where we started. Late last night, a federal appeals court judge granted Texas an emergency stay halting Planned Parenthood’s participation in the Women’s Health Program. Justice Jerry Smith of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted the stay, lifting at least temporarily an injunction – issued yesterday by [...]
Injunction granted to Planned Parenthood
Good. A federal judge on Monday stopped Texas from preventing Planned Parenthood from getting state funds through the Women’s Health Program. U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel in Austin ruled there is sufficient evidence that a law banning Planned Parenthood from the program is unconstitutional. He imposed an injunction against enforcing it until he can hear [...]
The state shows its intent in Planned Parenthood lawsuit
As we know, Planned Parenthood filed a lawsuit against the state of Texas in order to block the “Affiliate Rule” that Rick Perry is using to deny Medicaid funds to their clinics for the Women’s Health Program. In the opening arguments of the lawsuit, the state clearly shows what its priorities are. State officials will [...]
Rick Perry’s vision for women’s health in Texas
More talk than action, and the numbers don’t add up. Are we surprised? Texas health officials have delivered a proposal to the federal government that outlines their plans for transitioning the Women’s Health Program from a program primarily supported by federal funds to one that runs on state money. They want the federal government to [...]
The Texas bait and switch
You almost have to admire the sheer brazenness of it all. Almost. 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. Texas is losing more than [...]
What radicals?
I was reading this Patricia Kilday Hart column about how nobody outside Texas paid attention to the sonogram bill until the Virginia brouhaha and the Doonesbury series, which is a good albeit frustrating read, when I came across this bit that was frustrating for an entirely different reason: In the Texas Legislature, votes like Davis’ [...]
Mockery is the best medicine
Business Insider comes across the Facebook fun. Women aren’t too happy with Rick Perry’s stance on family planning funding. Today, they let him know the best way they could, with some well-directed Internet snark. Posts asking Perry’s advice about everything from menstruation to menopause flooded the governor’s Facebook wall this morning. They’ve since been taken [...]
Abbott files suit over WHP
Say what? Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott is filing yet another lawsuit against the federal government, this one, no surprise, over the Women’s Health Program. Federal health officials announced Thursday what state leaders had predicted for weeks: that they are halting funding for the program — which provides contraception, well woman exams and cancer screenings [...]