LWVTX Blog

By Catherine Maxwell, LWVTX Issue Chair for Women's Healthcare and Reproductive Rights

The pilot Doula services for Medicaid patients bill, HB 465, has passed the House and is moving on to the Senate. So is HB 12, which provides for twelve months of postpartum care for Medicaid mothers. The year of care is recommended by the committee organized to help lower Texas’s number of deaths among new mothers. Texas Medicaid mothers currently receive two months of postpartum care. When this issue was up for a vote in the last legislature, the Senate cut the twelve months to six (which later dropped to two months when pandemic funds ended). The hope is that the Senate doesn’t cut months again when they consider the bill.

HB 2983 is a pilot project to provide medical nutrition assistance to Medicaid recipients because “healthy food is good medicine.” It is out of committee and scheduled for a hearing in the House on April 26th. The chosen recipients for this project include those with diabetes, pulmonary complications, and other chronic illnesses.

On May 5th, San Antonio voters will be able to cast a vote to decriminalize abortion within city limits. Proposition A covers a number of issues including decriminalization of marijuana and a number of restrictions on policing alongside the question of abortion. Supporters know that city officials cannot act against state law but they do believe that passage could send a symbolic message to Texas lawmakers. For more information about Proposition A, click here.