Tag Archives: birth control

All Texas Republicans vote against bill to protect contraception

Posted on June 8, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

The headline speaks for itself. The U.S. House passed a bill Thursday that would prevent states from banning birth control, though nearly the entire Republican delegation from Texas voted against it. The bill, which faces far more hurdles passing through … Continue reading →

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Fifth Circuit mostly upholds that wingnut anti-birth control ruling

Posted on March 15, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

A tale as old as time, the Fifth Circuit doing terrible things. The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a Texas law requiring parental consent to obtain contraception for minors. The decision from a three-judge panel of the federal appeals … Continue reading →

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We’re beginning to quantify the effect of the abortion ban

Posted on January 26, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

Three stories from the Chron about abortion and forced births. The first one involves rape victims. Read carefully. More than 26K rape-related pregnancies estimated after Texas outlawed abortions. Texas saw an estimated 26,313 rape-related pregnancies during the 16 months after … Continue reading →

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Fifth Circuit hears wingnut anti-contraception appeal

Posted on November 13, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before, but don’t get your hopes up. In fact, keep them down. For almost a year, Texas teens have been shut out of a federal program that allows minors to access birth control … Continue reading →

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Over the counter birth control pill approved

Posted on July 14, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

A big deal, and a long time coming. The Food and Drug Administration approved the first ever over-the-counter birth control pill in the United States Thursday, a huge advancement in contraceptive accessibility amid an ever more restrictive abortion landscape. “Approval … Continue reading →

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FDA set to approve over the counter birth control pill

Posted on May 12, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

Good. An influential advisory panel recommended that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approve an oral contraceptive pill for over-the-counter use without an age restriction. While hormonal birth control is available without a prescription in many other countries, this medication, … Continue reading →

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Texas clinics begin compliance with that wingnut anti-birth control court order

Posted on January 5, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

Infuriating but expected. Texas teens will now need their parents’ permission to get birth control at federally funded clinics, following a court ruling late last month. These clinics, funded through a program called Title X, provide free, confidential contraception to … Continue reading →

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Wingnut Trump judge issues his anti-birth control ruling

Posted on December 23, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

And from here it goes to the Fifth Circuit. Isn’t this fun? A federal court ruling Tuesday may make it nearly impossible for Texas teens to access birth control without their parents’ permission. U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk ruled that … Continue reading →

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We said they’d come for birth control next

Posted on December 17, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

And here they are. Matthew Kacsmaryk, a Trump appointee to a federal court in Texas, spent much of his career trying to interfere with other people’s sexuality. A former lawyer at a religious conservative litigation shop, Kacsmaryk denounced, in a 2015 article, … Continue reading →

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A non-prescription pill

Posted on December 6, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

This sounds like a good idea. If you’re one of the estimated 10 million people in the United States taking oral contraception, you probably needed a prescription to get it. But that could soon change: In July, a Paris-based company, HRA Pharma, announced it … Continue reading →

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The birth control gap

Posted on July 20, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

The state of Texas will do nothing to address this as long as the current government is in place. Ramírez’s situation reflects an immense need in the country: 21 million women of reproductive age needed publicly funded contraceptive care as … Continue reading →

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SBOE updates sex ed curriculum

Posted on September 15, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

All things considered, especially the past history of the State Board of Education and its shenanigans, this could have been worse. It’s not great, but the potential for disaster was monumentally high. The Texas State Board of Education gave preliminary … Continue reading →

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Another dive into the Heidi Group grift

Posted on June 10, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

The Observer is on it this time, and as before if you’re not mad by the time you’ve finished reading you’re doing it wrong. The state of Texas has poured hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars into [Carol] Everett’s clinic, … Continue reading →

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More birth control by mail options

Posted on August 12, 2017 by Charles Kuffner

Good to see. “We want women to see us and say, ‘These are people who believe that if you want birth control you should have it,’” said Hans Ganeskar, co-founder and CEO of Nurx, a California-based site founded in 2015 … Continue reading →

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Texas’ teen pregnancy rate is the result of bad policy choices

Posted on June 16, 2017 by Charles Kuffner

From the Rivard Report: In Texas each year, about 35,000 young women get pregnant before they turn 20. Traditionally, the two variables most commonly associated with high teen birth rates are education and poverty, but a new study, co-authored by … Continue reading →

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SCOTUS punts on birth control lawsuit

Posted on May 17, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

Wow. Zubik v. Burwell was supposed to be an epic showdown over the power of religious objectors to limit the rights of others. A sequel to the Court’s 2014 decision in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, Zubik involved regulations expanding women’s access … Continue reading →

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Once more with SCOTUS and birth control

Posted on March 24, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

Here we go. In another major case concerning Texas women’s reproductive care, the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday will consider if the right to religious freedom is broad enough to completely exempt nonprofits with religious objections to birth control from … Continue reading →

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The easily predicted results of de-funding Planned Parenthood have resulted as predicted

Posted on February 6, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

Who’d a thunk it? A new study released Wednesday reports that after anti-abortion Texas lawmakers blocked Planned Parenthood from participating in the Texas Women’s Health Program (TWHP) in 2013, fewer low-income women received the most effective kinds of contraception. The study, … Continue reading →

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Let the budgetary games begin

Posted on March 31, 2015 by Charles Kuffner

The House takes up the budget today, with over 300 amendments and riders queued up for votes. A couple of things to watch for as the debate goes on: Killing vouchers. Lawmakers in the Texas House will have a chance … Continue reading →

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There’s an app for birth control

Posted on October 25, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

I’m sure this won’t controversial at all. “Isn’t there an app for that?” Turns out there is, if what you’re after is birth control or a test for a sexually transmitted infection. In the latest example of fast-growing “telemedicine,” video … Continue reading →

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We don’t need no (sex) education

Posted on July 11, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

Here’s the state of Texas leading the nation in yet another unflattering category. In Texas and across the country, the rate of teenage births has declined significantly since its peak in 1991. Birth rates among teenagers in Texas dropped 43 … Continue reading →

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Restricting abortion has always been about restricting abortion

Posted on September 21, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

Claims that it’s about “protecting women” have always been baloney. In their successful push this summer for strict new regulations on abortion facilities and the doctors performing them, proponents of the legislation said it was needed because conditions at existing … Continue reading →

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Feds bypass the state on Title X funds

Posted on March 29, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

Very interesting. The federal government announced [Monday] that it would no longer award a large slice of federal family-planning funds to the state of Texas. Instead, the feds will award the $6.5 million grant to the Women’s Health and Family … Continue reading →

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You can’t undo the damage to women’s health

Posted on March 4, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

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: … Continue reading →

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The birth control poll

Posted on February 21, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

The Texas Freedom Network would like you to know that Texans support having access to birth control. A new statewide poll from the Texas Freedom Network Education Fund shows Texans believe that access to family planning and birth control is … Continue reading →

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The war on women continues apace

Posted on February 19, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

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), … Continue reading →

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Smaller WHP provider list back up

Posted on February 1, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

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 … Continue reading →

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From the “Babies and other hazards of sex” department

Posted on December 10, 2012 by Charles Kuffner

Rep. Donna Howard has more tact than I do. When state lawmakers passed a two-year budget in 2011 that moved $73 million from family planning services to other programs, the goal was largely political: halt the flow of taxpayer dollars … Continue reading →

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News flash: Birth control prevents unwanted pregnancies

Posted on October 12, 2012 by Charles Kuffner

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 … Continue reading →

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Health care access continues to shrink in Texas

Posted on October 1, 2012 by Charles Kuffner

Who needs family planning services? I mean, every kid is born to people who want and can care for them, am I right? About 15 percent of Houston-area clinics that received state funding for family planning services closed their doors … Continue reading →

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Yvonne Gutierrez: Republican support for women’s health?

Posted on June 28, 2012 by Charles Kuffner

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 … Continue reading →

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And then they went right back to not caring about women

Posted on March 23, 2012 by Charles Kuffner

Such a delightfully cynical little stunt. Thirteen Republican members of the Texas congressional delegation wrote a letter to President Obama protesting the administration’s decision to phase out funding for the Texas Women’s Health Program. The administration took the action after … Continue reading →

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What radicals?

Posted on March 23, 2012 by Charles Kuffner

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 … Continue reading →

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Mockery is the best medicine

Posted on March 20, 2012 by Charles Kuffner

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 … Continue reading →

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