The Most Depressing Advent Calendar: 25 Ways that Texas Endangers Mothers and Children

On a whim final December, I made a decision to create a “Texas Hates Moms and Kids Creation Calendar” on Bluesky, the social media app the place tens of millions ended up after Elon Musk turned X (previously Twitter) right into a hate-filled catastrophe. Within the spirit of a season that revolves round mom and baby, I posted a not-so-fun reality on daily basis from December 1 to December 25 concerning the many ways in which the State of Texas has proven its whole disregard for the well-being of girls and kids. I knew it could be straightforward to give you the primary dozen posts however was unpleasantly shocked to study that I’d have wanted greater than 25 days to actually seize how dangerous issues are.

Though Texas likes to boast that it’s a land of prosperity and freedom, it isn’t a spot the place it’s secure to be a lady or a toddler. Most of the information I highlighted on this calendar are the product of the Texas GOP’s “pro-life” battle on abortion. However the actuality is that the Texas GOP doesn’t care one whit about infants or their moms. At finest, the conservatives that run the state are “pro-birth;” at worst, they’re misogynists. The information converse for themselves.

Day 1: ’Tis the season to have a good time Mom and Youngster. Welcome to Day 1 of my “Texas hates moms and kids” Creation Calendar. Maternal Mortality Evaluation Fee votes to skip two years after abortion ban.

Day 2: The maternal mortality fee has elevated 56% since Texas successfully did away with authorized abortion in 2021 by way of the SB 8 bounty hunter regulation.

Day 3: Since SB 8 ended most abortion in Texas, the toddler mortality fee has elevated virtually 13% (in comparison with 1.8% nationally).

Day 4: Nearly half of the counties in Texas haven’t any maternity care—prenatal care or a hospital to ship a child (that many ladies at the moment are compelled to have).

Day 5: Texas provides $140 million a 12 months to disaster being pregnant facilities, which use deception and extra to coerce girls to not have abortions whereas offering few if any providers.

Day 6: A lot of the disaster being pregnant facilities ($140 million per 12 months from Texas, see Day 5) within the state promote “abortion reversal”—an unproven, unscientific ruse to confuse and scare remedy abortion sufferers.

Day 7: Texas has the very best fee within the nation of uninsured grownup girls—23% vs. 10.9% nationwide vs. 2% in Massachusetts.

Day 8: Texas has the very best repeat teen beginning fee within the nation. Poor/no intercourse ed + abortion ban + minors want parental consent for contraception even when already a mother or father.

Day 9: Texas has the bottom earnings cap for Medicaid eligibility within the nation. Dad and mom with a toddler are too RICH for Medicaid in the event that they earn greater than 17% of the federal poverty stage.

Day 10: Texas ranks second-to-last (thanks, Mississippi!) in girls’s well being and reproductive care.

Day 11: Texas is one among solely 4 states that by no means lets a minor entry prescription contraceptives with out parental consent.

Day 12: A child is born to a Texas teen each 25 minutes, a fee that’s 50% larger than the nationwide common. These younger dad and mom have fewer helps in Texas than nearly each different state (see prior posts).

Day 13: AG Ken Paxton sues NY physician for offering remedy abortion to Texas affected person through telehealth—absolutely in compliance with NY regulation. Texas desires everybody to kill girls on the identical fee it does.

Day 14: Texas had extra pregnancies attributable to rape than every other state that banned abortion after Dobbs—26,000 in solely 18 months. No rape or incest exception to ban.

Day 15: Public colleges aren’t required to show intercourse ed; 25% don’t. Solely 16% train something aside from abstinence. The State Board of Training voted to not add discussions of consent or sexuality to the curriculum.

Day 16: A minimum of 1.7 million girls in Texas stay in contraceptive deserts and lack cheap entry to household planning suppliers and providers.

Day 17: The abortion ban has made each being pregnant extra harmful—generally lethally so. The federal government has refused to take any steps to stop tragedies like this one.

Day 18: Texas has spent tens of millions in authorized charges defending its failure to maintain youngsters in foster care secure—litigation that has gone on for fourteen years.

Day 19: In 2023, 35,000 girls left Texas to hunt abortion care in one other state. Simply take into consideration the burden implicit in that quantity.

Day 20: Texas had extra faculty shootings than every other state in 2024, but each change to gun legal guidelines in recent times has been to raise restrictions.

Day 21: Texas opts out of USDA program to offer low-income college students with free lunch over the summer season.

Day 22: Regardless of federal funding that allowed some states to cut back backlog of untested rape kits to zero, the speed of untested kits in Texas elevated by 45% from 2021 to 2022.

Day 23: Texas ranks third from final in girls’s well being high quality and prevention based mostly on c-section fee for low-risk pregnancies, prenatal and postpartum care, preventative providers, and psychological well being screenings.

Day 24: No room on the inn. Sixty % of rural hospitals in Texas don’t ship infants, and maternal mortality will increase with the gap to the closest hospital with obstetric providers.

Day 25: A recap. Texas ranks excessive the dangerous issues—maternal & toddler mortality, repeat teen births, rape-induced pregnancies, e.g.—and low on the great issues like entry to prenatal care, contraception, & intercourse ed. There’s nothing “pro-life” right here.

Do higher, Texas.