Texas Abortion Restrictions

Featured coverage

How to get birth control and emergency contraception in Texas

By María Méndez Updated: March 14, 2024

Contraception options are available through most health insurance plans and government-funded clinics. Full Story 

Latest coverage

• Anti-abortion crusader’s deposition requests generate fear, but no findings

  By Eleanor Klibanoff May 10, 2024

  Jonathan Mitchell has filed at least nine petitions seeking information from abortion activists, doctors and women. None have resulted in a deposition. Full Story 

• New reporting requirements for life-saving abortions worry some doctors

  By Eleanor Klibanoff April 25, 2024

  The proposed guidance from the Texas Medical Board would require doctors to document whether there was time to transfer a patient “by any means available” to avoid performing an abortion. Full Story 

• Texas Medical Board to consider issuing guidance on abortion laws’ medical exceptions

  By Madaleine Rubin March 14, 2024

  On March 22, the board will discuss clarifying what counts as a medical exception to the state’s abortion restrictions. Full Story 

• With Texas births rising post-Roe, disability advocates say child services need bolstering

  By Neelam Bohra March 11, 2024

  Texas’ fertility rose after new abortion restrictions, raising concerns that special education and specialized health care will be stretched even thinner. Full Story 

• Disabled Texans face more barriers to accessing abortion

  By Neelam Bohra Feb. 20, 2024

  Few organizations track the number of disabled individuals trying to access abortion, but abortion providers and groups that help assist Texans obtain out-of-state abortions say they are falling through the cracks. Full Story 

• Hispanic and teen fertility rates increase after abortion restrictions

  By Eleanor Klibanoff Jan. 26, 2024

  More than 16,000 babies were born in Texas in 2022 than in 2021, a new study from the University of Houston shows. Full Story 

• Kate Cox’s case reveals how far Texas intends to go to enforce abortion laws

  By Eleanor Klibanoff Dec. 13, 2023

  The Dallas mom’s case drew national attention and forced the abortion issue before the state Supreme Court. She ended up traveling out of state to terminate her non-viable pregnancy. Full Story 

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• Texas Supreme Court blocks order allowing abortion; woman who sought it leaves state

  By Eleanor Klibanoff Updated: Dec. 11, 2023

  The Texas Supreme Court ruled that Kate Cox did not qualify for an abortion under the medical exception to the state’s near-total abortion ban. Just hours prior, Cox’s lawyers said she’d traveled out of state to have the procedure. Full Story 

• Texas Supreme Court temporarily halts ruling allowing Dallas woman to get an abortion

  By Eleanor Klibanoff Updated: Dec. 8, 2023

  After a Travis County district judge cleared the way for Kate Cox, 31, to terminate her pregnancy, Ken Paxton petitioned the state’s highest court to halt the ruling. Full Story 

• Appeals court considers Texas’ challenge to federal abortion guidance

  By Eleanor Klibanoff Nov. 7, 2023

  The federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act requires hospitals to stabilize any patient in the emergency room, even, the Biden administration noted in recent guidance, if that requires performing an abortion. Texas sued over the guidance last year. Full Story 

• She was told her twin sons wouldn’t survive. Texas law made her give birth anyway.

  By Eleanor Klibanoff, Photos by Shelby Tauber Oct. 11, 2023

  Miranda Michel, 26, couldn’t leave the state for an abortion. But she also couldn’t bear the idea of carrying a nonviable pregnancy to term. Full Story 

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• Texas AG appeals judge’s order that allows women with complicated pregnancies to get abortions

  By William Melhado Updated: Aug. 5, 2023

  State District Court Judge Jessica Mangrum on Friday issued a temporary exemption to Texas’ abortion ban. Hours later, the attorney general’s office filed an appeal, which blocked the order. Full Story 

• Tearfully testifying against Texas’ abortion ban, three women describe medical care delayed

  By Eleanor Klibanoff and Rebecca Schneid Updated: July 20, 2023

  The women, believed to be the first to testify about an abortion ban’s impact on their pregnancy since 1973, are seeking to clarify when a medical emergency justifies an abortion. Full Story 

• Nearly 10,000 more babies born in nine months under Texas’ restrictive abortion law, study finds

  By Eleanor Klibanoff June 30, 2023

  This is the first analysis of live births since the law, which banned abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy, went into effect in September 2021. Full Story 

• A year after Dobbs decision, Texas has settled in to a post-abortion reality

  By Eleanor Klibanoff June 23, 2023

  The impact of Texas’ near-total ban on abortion is coming into focus as patients and providers leave the state, legal challenges languish and the state’s social safety net braces for a baby boom. Full Story 

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• Women accused of facilitating abortion in Galveston wrongful-death lawsuit file countersuit

  By Eleanor Klibanoff May 2, 2023

  The women are accused of helping their friend terminate her pregnancy, but they now claim her ex-husband, who brought the lawsuit, knew she had obtained the medication and did nothing to stop her. Full Story 

• Supreme Court leaves abortion drug on the market, for now

  By Eleanor Klibanoff Updated: April 21, 2023

  The legal challenge to mifepristone now returns to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans. Full Story 

• Supreme Court extends access to abortion drug until Friday

  By Eleanor Klibanoff and Raul Trey Lopez Updated: April 19, 2023

  The U.S. Supreme Court originally planned to weigh in on the abortion pill case by Wednesday night, but extended the hold on the Amarillo ruling until Friday at midnight. Full Story 

• Some Texas groups resume funding out-of-state abortions after court ruling

  By Eleanor Klibanoff Updated: March 24, 2023

  A federal judge granted a preliminary injunction in February, blocking a limited number of prosecutors from going after anyone who helps a Texan travel out of state to terminate a pregnancy. This has given some abortion funds confidence to resume operations. Full Story 

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• How an old law found new life in lawsuit seeking to revoke approval of abortion pill

  By Eleanor Klibanoff March 20, 2023

  Anti-abortion advocates are trying to revive the long-dormant 1873 Comstock Act, which banned mailing of anything related to abortion or contraception, in a lawsuit about mifepristone, an abortion-inducing drug. Full Story