Women Feel Impact Of Texas’ Roundabout Ways Of Chipping Away At Planned Parenthood Funds
By 2013, the state's maneuvers prompted 82 Texas clinics to close or stop offering family planning services. None of the clinics performed abortions. In related news, a sweeping anti-abortion bill passes the Texas legislature.
Los Angeles Times:
Here’s What Happens When You Defund Planned Parenthood
It was Aubrey Reinhardt’s last year at Texas Tech University. So when things started getting serious with her boyfriend, she decided it was time to look into birth control. Reinhardt knew that abortion foes had been trying to strip Planned Parenthood of every penny it receives from government sources. But until that moment two years ago, Reinhardt recalled, she didn’t appreciate what that could mean for a person like her who just needed somewhere to go for affordable contraception — without feeling she was being judged. (Zavis, 5/30)
Texas Tribune:
Sweeping Anti-Abortion Bill Heads To Governor's Desk
Texas senators voted Friday to send a bill banning the most common second-trimester abortion procedure and changing how health care facilities handle fetal remains to Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk. Under Senate Bill 8, which passed 22-9, health care facilities including hospitals and abortion clinics would be required to bury or cremate any fetal remains — whether from abortion, miscarriage or stillbirth. The bill would also ban facilities from donating aborted fetal tissue to medical researchers, and aims to outlaw "partial-birth abortions," which are already illegal under federal law. (Evans, 5/26)