How Texas teens lost the one program that allowed birth control without parental consent
Federal Title X clinics do not require parental consent for birth control — except in Texas, where a lawsuit upended the longstanding program. Full Story
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![Various birth control pills available at a Planned Parenthood in Austin.]()
Credit: Todd Wiseman/The Texas Tribune -
Texas counties, cities embrace new child care center tax credit even though few providers qualify
Child care centers are struggling to make ends meet, and a new voter-approved tax credit is a first step toward boosting the flagging system, advocates say. Full Story
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![Kindergarten students are loaded into a van by Pita Espinosa so they can be driven to their elementary school from the Learning Tree childcare center in Yoakum, on Sept. 13, 2022.]()
Credit: Annie Mulligan for The Texas Tribune -
Years ago, Texas hustled to get kids on state health care. Now it’s kicking them off.
Texas’ recent unwinding of Medicaid and CHIP has been criticized, dropping more than a million people eligible for the health insurance programs. Decades ago, Texas officials got kids health insurance in record time. Full Story
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![August Johansen looks through the glass door of the birthday venue while cradling a balloon on Dec. 9, 2023. He had inoperable brain cancer and depended on Medicaid to pay for full-time home nursing care from a private agency to help his mother take care of him throughout years of health crises. But in December, he became one of 810,000 children dropped from Texas’ Medicaid program in the previous five months, but was reinstated through his mother's efforts.]()
Credit: Azul Sordo for The Texas Tribune -
First human case of bird flu in Texas detected after contact with infected dairy cattle
The person had contact with infected cattle, state health officials said. It's the second recorded human case in the U.S. Full Story
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![Cattle stand in the burn scar from the Smokehouse Creek fire on March. 3, 2024 in Hemphill County.]()
Credit: Justin Rex for The Texas Tribune -
Texas woman charged with murder for self-induced abortion sues Starr County district attorney
The Starr County district attorney dropped the improper charges, but the fallout “forever changed the Plaintiff’s life,” a new federal lawsuit says. Full Story
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![The Starr County Jail in Rio Grande City on Saturday. The District Attorney is dropping the charges against Lizelle Herrera, a woman who was indicted with murder for a "self-induced abortion."]()
Credit: Michael Gonzalez for The Texas Tribune -
Migrants with disabilities struggle to access the U.S. asylum system, advocates say
The CBP One phone app, which most migrants use to begin the U.S. asylum process, isn’t accessible to those who are blind, deaf, have mobility issues, or have intellectual disabilities, according to a complaint. Full Story
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![Migrants expelled from the U.S. and sent back to Mexico under Title 42, use their phones near the Paso del Norte International border bridge, in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico May 21, 2022.]()
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Taking a cue from the pews, Texas churches expanding mental health services
Many Texas faith groups have offered counseling services in the past. But more of them are expanding their programs, partnering with providers, to help meet the growing need here for mental health services. Full Story
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![AUSTIN, TX - MARCH 24: Praise and worship service at Rehoboth Baptist Church in Austin, Texas on March 24, 2024. Photo by Montinique Monroe Texas Tribune]()
Credit: Montinique Monroe for The Texas Tribune -
A woman’s fight to escape the hospital shows Medicaid’s limits for disabled Texans
Staffing shortages and mismanaged care can delay when Texans on some Medicaid programs are discharged from hospitals. This can cost the state more and take a toll on patients and caregivers. Full Story
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![Kaitlyn Cunningham sits in her wheel chair in the hallway of Cedar Park Regional Medical Center in Cedar Park, Texas on Mar. 13, 2024. Cunningham and her mom Kathy Cunningham would walk down the hallway to look outside of the hospital windows at the birds.]()
Credit: Maria Crane for The Texas Tribune -
Watch a Texas Tribune conversation on meeting the state’s health care workforce needs
At Texas State Technical College in Waco, medical experts discussed how Texas schools are addressing workforce shortages and what else is needed to address our state’s needs. Full Story
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U.S. Supreme Court takes up Texas case challenging abortion pill access
A majority of Supreme Court justices seemed open to keeping mifepristone, a common abortion-inducing drug, on the market despite a Texas ruling revoking its FDA approval. Full Story
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![People visit the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. on March 10, 2022.]()
Credit: Eric Lee for the Texas Tribune -
Texas Medical Board proposes new guidance for abortion medical exceptions
The guidance was disappointing to reproductive rights advocates who were seeking more specificity and a list of conditions that could qualify. Full Story
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![Executive Director of the Texas Medical Board Stephen Brint Carlton, J.D., speaks prior to the start of the Texas Medical Board Full Board Meeting in the George H.W. Bush Building in Austin, Texas on Mar. 22, 2024. The meeting was postponed 15 minutes from the original start time of 8 a.m.]()
Credit: Maria Crane/The Texas Tribune -
Texas libraries work to bridge state’s mental health services gap
Information-rich public libraries are using their websites and facilities to address the ever-increasing demand for counseling, housing and substance abuse services. Full Story
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![Librarian Judy Bergeron answers the phone in her office at the Smithville Public Library in Smithville, Texas on Mar. 11, 2024. Bergeron and her team participated in the It's Time Texas Community Challenge where her and her team worked for eight weeks on this challenge by logging hours of healthy activities and would push each other to do self care and community events such as getting together to exercise and eat healthy meals. Smithville won for the statewide extra small community a seventh year in a row.]()
Credit: Maria Crane for The Texas Tribune -
New EPA rule to slash cancer-causing emissions from sterilization facilities
Laredo residents who live near a sterilization plant say the new federal limits on the pollutant will improve air quality and reduce their city’s high cancer risk. Full Story
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![The Midwest Sterilization Corporation in Laredo on May 13, 2021.]()
Credit: Miguel Gutierrez Jr./The Texas Tribune -
Texas Medical Board to consider issuing guidance on abortion laws’ medical exceptions
On March 22, the board will discuss clarifying what counts as a medical exception to the state’s abortion restrictions. Full Story
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![An ultrasound machine sits next to an empty patient's bed at Whole Women’s Health of Austin on Sept. 1, 2021.]()
Credit: Jordan Vonderhaar for The Texas Tribune -
Neglected and exposed: Toxic air lingers in a Texas Latino community, revealing failures in state’s air monitoring system
Public data from a network of state air monitors around the Houston Ship Channel is hard to interpret and is often inadequate, leaving Latino-majority neighborhoods like Cloverleaf unaware of whether the air they breathe is safe. Full Story
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![Cristina Lazo starts the daily routine of washing her daughter Alina’s hands, changing clothes and rubbing an ointment on her irritated eyes after coming home from the outside. Lazo believes the fumes from the nearby industrial sector are contributing to her 7-year-old daughter’s symptoms.
Al llegar a su casa desde el exterior, Cristina Lazo inicia la rutina diaria de lavarle las manos a su hija Alina, cambiarla de ropa y aplicarle una pomada en los ojos irritados. Lazo cree que la fuga de gases del complejo industrial cercano están contribuyendo a los síntomas de su hija de 7 años.
On November 10, 2023, Cristina Lazo helps her six-year-old daughter Alina wash her hands at their home in Cloverleaf, Texas.]()
Credit: Danielle Villasana for The Texas Tribune -
Expuestos y en el olvido: El aire tóxico en una comunidad latina de Texas revela los fallos del sistema estatal de control de calidad del aire
Los datos públicos de una red de monitores de la calidad del aire alrededor del Canal de Navegación de Houston son difíciles de interpretar y a menudo son insuficientes, dejando a vecindarios de mayoría latina, como Cloverleaf, sin saber si el aire que respiran es seguro. Full Story
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![People walk through San Jacinto Park as a tanker ship passes through the Houston Ship Channel in La Porte. Thousands of families live and play near the world’s largest petrochemical complex.
Un grupo de personas camina por el Parque San Jacinto mientras un barco cisterna pasa por el Canal de Navegación de Houston en La Porte. Miles de familias viven y juegan cerca del complejo petroquímico más grande del mundo.
People walk in San Jacinto Park as a large tanker ship pass through Houston Ship Channel on the background in Saturday October 28, 2023 in La Porte, TX]()
Credit: Go Nakamura for The Texas Tribune -
Why covid patients who could most benefit from paxlovid still aren’t getting it
During the pandemic, the federal government offered Americans a 5-day course of Paxlovid, the antiviral drug that lessens COVID-19 symptoms. But now that Pfizer is charging for it, confusion over insurance coverage, price, has made patients wary. Full Story
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![Paxlovid, Pfizer's anti-viral medication to treat the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), is displayed in this picture illustration taken Oct. 7, 2022. A morning and an evening dose consists of one white 100-milligram tablet of Ritonavir and two pink 150-milligram tablets of PF-07321332.]()
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5th Circuit upholds Texas law requiring minors to obtain parental consent for contraception
A three-judge panel in New Orleans ruled that a Texas law requiring minors to obtain parental consent to obtain birth control does not conflict with the goals of the federally-funded Title X program, which has given teens birth control confidentially. Full Story
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Two West Texas infants in the same neighborhood diagnosed with rare botulism
A third infant nearby also contracted botulism last August. Local and state health officials said there is no public health emergency. Full Story
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![Downtown Midland is seen on Monday, April 27, 2020.]()
Credit: Ben Powell for The Texas Tribune -
With Texas births rising post-Roe, disability advocates say child services need bolstering
Texas’ fertility rose after new abortion restrictions, raising concerns that special education and specialized health care will be stretched even thinner. Full Story
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![Debbie Wiederhold tallks with Daniel on Feb. 29, 2024. They talk about his favorite artist, Taylor Swift.]()
Credit: Maria Crane/The Texas Tribune
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