On Tuesday, Abortion rights organizations filed a federal lawsuit aimed at blocking a Texas six-week abortion ban. The law would allow individuals to sue anyone thought to have helped someone obtain an abortion. Whole Woman’s Health, Planned Parenthood, the Center for Reproductive Rights, the ACLU, and other parties are challenging the Texas law, which encourages […]
Texas Governor Signs Abortion Ban into Law
On Wednesday, Texas governor Greg Abbott (R) signed SB 8, a bill that bans abortion after six weeks of pregnancy, into law. The law, misleadingly called a “heartbeat” bill, bans abortion after six weeks, often before someone is even aware of the pregnancy, and allows private citizens to sue doctors or anyone else who helps […]
Texas Legislature Debates Anti-Trans Youth Bill
On Wednesday, the Texas House heard testimony debating HB 1399, a bill which would ban gender-affirming care for transgender young people. The bill would prohibit doctors from providing evidence-based, best practice medical care for transgender young people under 18. Many parents of transgender children spoke on Wednesday about the danger of this bill. One parent […]
Texas House Passes Anti-Abortion Bill
On Wednesday, the Texas House passed a bill banning abortion as early as six weeks, before most people know they are pregnant. The Senate has already passed a similar version, and differences will be negotiated before the bill will go to Governor Greg Abbott’s desk. The bill is a “heartbeat bill,” meaning it aims to […]
Texas Judge Temporarily Blocks Order to Remove Planned Parenthood from Medicaid
A state judge has ruled to temporarily halt the expulsion of Planned Parenthood from the Texas Medicaid program. Planned Parenthood affiliates brought an emergency lawsuit against the order on Wednesday, asserting that the state failed to give proper notice. The change was set to take effect on Thursday of this week, but the temporary restraining […]
Texas Clinics See a Rise in Later Abortions After a Temporary State Ban Expires
Many clinics in Texas have observed an increase in later-term abortions, following a temporary ban on the procedures lasting from March 22 until April 22. On March 22, Governor Greg Abbott issued an executive order banning most abortions, citing coronavirus and hospital capacity as reasons for this ban. The order stated that “all licensed health […]
House Democrats Urge ICE to Release Detainees Amid Spike in COVID-19 Cases
On Monday, Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-TX) and Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX) called upon ICE to release detainees and improve conditions ICE detention centers as COVID-19 cases continue to increase. Since early 2020, the pandemic has taken the lives of nearly 120,000 Americans. States like Texas and Arizona house approximately 40 immigration detention centers, and are […]
States Tell Workers Return to Work During Pandemic or Lose Unemployment Benefits
Some states, including Iowa and Texas, have begun to reopen their economies amidst the coronavirus pandemic and have warned residents that employees who refuse to return to their jobs will be ineligible for unemployment benefits. These policies force workers to decide between their health and unemployment insurance and could facilitate the spread of COVID-19. Congress […]
Texas Governor’s Executive Order Banning Abortion Expires
Tuesday night, Texas’ Republican Governor Greg Abbott’s March 21 executive order expired. The order had been the object of weeks of legal debate over the classification of medication and procedural abortion as a ‘non-essential’ medical procedure during the COVID-19 crisis. On Wednesday, Gov. Abbott announced a new executive order, allowing certain medical procedures to resume, […]
Federal Appeals Court Reinstates Texas Coronavirus Abortion Ban
A federal appeals court upheld Texas’s ban on abortion services during the coronavirus crisis less than 24 hours after a district judge struck down parts of the ban. This latest decision blocks medication abortions but allows abortions for those who would be past Texas’s legal gestational limit at the end of the ban. In late […]
Abortion Providers in Texas Turn to District Courts for Abortion Ban Exemptions
Texas abortion providers asked a district judge for limited relief from an executive order restricting abortion during the pandemic, rather than taking the case to the Supreme Court. The move by the providers to seek help from a district judge was made in response to an order from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the […]
Study Reports Texas Women Will Have to Travel 20 Times Farther to Obtain Abortion Care
Due to Texas’ new abortion ban, women in the state must now travel 20 times farther to obtain an abortion as reported in an analysis of anti-abortion measures implemented in some states due to the COVID-19 pandemic. According to a study by the Guttmacher Institute, the average distance a woman will have to travel one-way […]
Reproductive Rights Groups Sue to Stop Oklahoma’s COVID-19 Abortion Ban
The Center for Reproductive Rights and Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) have filed an emergency lawsuit to nullify Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt’s ban on abortion procedures during the COVID-19 pandemic. Last week, Stitt issued an executive order temporarily halting elective surgeries, which he later specified includes all abortions not deemed “necessary to prevent serious […]
U.S. Appeals Court Rules in Favor of COVID-19 Texas Abortion Ban
On Tuesday, March 31, a United States appeals court ruled to allow Texas to continue enforcing limits on people’s ability to obtain safe and legal abortions due to the state’s policy to postpone “non-essential” procedures in lieu of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to a New York Times release by Reuters, “Texas and other states that […]
Texas Abortion Providers Sue Governor Over Attack on Abortion Access
In one of the most high-profile challenges to a government response to the COVID-19 pandemic, a group of Texas abortion providers have sued Governor Greg Abbott and other state officials in protest of his administration’s exploitation of the pandemic to stop most abortions. The abortion providers, represented by Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the Center […]
TX, OH, LA Attempt to Ban Abortion in Midst of Global Pandemic
Abortion has been included as a nonessential surgery in Texas and Ohio in yet another attempt by lawmakers to ban abortion in the midst of a global pandemic. While the states pointed to a desire to save personal protective equipment for healthcare workers fighting COVID-19, abortion rights activists claim that abortion is, in fact, essential […]
Trump Administration Reinstates Texas Medicaid Funding, Allows Planned Parenthood Exclusion
Texas will regain federal Medicaid funding for its state family planning program despite refusing to reinstate Planned Parenthood’s coverage, a move which threatens to embolden attacks on Planned Parenthood in other states. Texas lost its Title X federal funding under the Obama administration in 2012 after removing Planned Parenthood and other “affiliates of abortion providers” […]
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Trump Administration hosts Concentration Camps at the Texas Border
This week, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted a link to an Esquire article titled “An Expert on Concentration Camps Says That’s Exactly What the U.S. Is Running at the Border” which sparked controversy over the Trump administration’s handling of refugees. AOC captioned her tweet “This administration has established concentration camps on the southern border of the United […]
Alabama Mayor Mark Chambers Post Violent Anti-LGBT Rhetoric Faces Calls for Resignation
This week, Hometown Action and Equality Alabama have started petitions calling for the resignation of Mark Chambers, Mayor of Carbon Hill, Alabama following his comments posted on June 4th on his personal Facebook page advocating for the “killing” of the LGBTQ community. This statement has caused backlash from his constituents and the LGBTQ Community. Chambers […]
Another Funeral for a Black Texan Woman in the Month of May
Funeral services were held on May 23 for Pamela Turner, an unarmed, 44-year-old Houston-area grandmother of three who was shot and killed by Baytown, Texas police officer Juan Delacruz outside of her suburban apartment complex on May 13 in what civil rights attorney Ben Crump has called an “unjustifiable execution.” The Rev. Al Sharpton gave […]
