women's health

Texas State Rep. Donna Howard authored a proposal this legislative session that would exempt period products – as well as additional supplies including diapers, breast pumps and maternity clothes – from sales tax.

If Austin Rep. Donna Howard's latest bill makes it through the Legislature and becomes law, Texas will join 24 other states that don't tax feminine hygiene products.

“It was just a matter of time before the baby died, or maybe I’d have to go through the trauma of carrying to term knowing I wasn’t bringing a baby home,” said 27-year-old Lauren Hall. “I couldn’t do that.”

Earlier this month, voters soundly rejected an amendment to the Kansas Constitution that could have led to an abortion ban. But abortion remains tightly restricted in the state even as women from across the region flood Kansas clinics.

Nationally, Black people giving birth are three times more likely to die than their white counterparts, and twice as likely in Texas. That concerns reproductive justice advocates, who fear these outcomes will worsen now that Roe v. Wade is overturned, and people can’t access abortion services.

Last May, Lubbock became the biggest city in Texas to ban abortion within city limits. Now, with abortion outlawed throughout the Lone Star State, the fight over reproductive rights is taking a new turn.

As Kansans prepare to vote on the future of abortion, rural western Kansas offers a preview of what life with an abortion ban might eventually look like for the rest of the state.

Abortion has been a hot-button issue, and in an election year, Democrats and Republicans have made it part of their platforms.

The U.S. Supreme Court appears poised to strike down abortion protections, making an upcoming Kansas vote on abortion rights even more important.

Politico said it obtained a draft Supreme Court majority opinion indicating the landmark abortion ruling will be overturned. Abortion is still legal in Texas.