Documents from the State Health Services Council's most recent meeting reveal that Texas' 2013 budget for reproductive health and family planning has yet again dropped in clients served since 2011. There was a total drop of 77 percent in clients served from 202,968 people in 2011. This year, just 47,322 patients were served, while the cost per patient has continued to increase.
Far right blogger Rick Atkinson coined a new and offensive nickname for State Senator Leticia Van de Putte this week, calling her 'Barrio Boopsie'. Taken with University of Texas Young Republican's offensive catch-an-illegal-immigrant game, and remarks on Wendy Davis, the pattern of racist insensitivity among the flanks of the far right is indisputable and omnipresent.
Texas State Elections Director Keith Ingram is blaming Wendy Davis because people are voting. Without her amendment to Voter ID one fifth of Texas voters in this past election would have been disenfranchised, yet somehow the problems at the polling booths fall on the up-and-coming state senator's shoulders.
A three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals lifted the permanent injunction U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel ruled on Monday which affirmed that the admitting privileges provision in HB 2 placed an undue burden
Rick Perry tried to mansplain away his wife's statements that seemed to support a woman's right to have an abortion. His wife claimed it was a "procedure" much like any surgery a man would elect to have.
Texas State Senator Wendy Davis is touting a bill she wrote to reduce the rape kit backlog in the state. Over 23,000 kits remain untested because of budget cuts and labor constraints. The bill also will improve DNA and evidence collection on site at hospitals.
After being dismissed for over a year, the Texas Department of Public Safety reinstated the female State Trooper who conducted an illegal cavity search in Brazoria County during a traffic stop in May of 2012 early last month. As previously reported, this was the second search that occurred last year in which a female agent failed to change gloves between conducting full cavity searches on the women they had pulled over. Both searches were ordered by male DPS agents during traffic stops.
Last week the House Committee on Homeland Security & Public Safety heard several bills that would allow guns in college campus buildings and in K-12 schools.
The hearing lasted over five hours, with plenty of testimony from both sides of the gun violence prevention debate. Many familiar activists from the last two sessions who prevented the legislation
We've seen a great deal of information about how the sequester will hurt Americans in health care, housing, disaster and emergency services, and the majority of other services funded by the federal government. However, not everyone in US will be affected equally. Border cities in Texas are looking to bear the greatest burden of the sequester cuts.
El Paso, is one of the cities in Texas greatly threatened by the sequester cuts because of its heavy reliance on military se
Yesterday, Planned Parenthood hosted a Tweet chat with two of Texas Legislature's most ardent advocates for reproductive equity, Representative Donna Howard and Senator Leticia Van de Putte, about women's health care in Texas.
The chat was an opportunity to discuss what we can do to better advocate for sane solutions in response to the lack of adequate preventative care services for the women in our state.
Unfortunately, it clearly became an opportunity for fundamental anti-choicers to flood the hashtag stream with crazy talk about embryos that wasn't related to what was being discus...
This is BOR's Video of the Day, or VOTD, our nightly video clip segment highlighting must-see content. If you like today's video and want more people to see it, share it on Twitter and Facebook!
Today's video shows what the first one hundred days of a Romney presidency would look like. The video includes (but isn't limited to) tax increases on the middle class, jobs being sent overseas, and the overturning of Roe v. Wade. If that doesn't sound frightening enough, watch below:
It's one day out-- you only have until tomorrow to vote in order to keep our ...
This is BOR's Video of the Day, or VOTD, our nightly video clip segment highlighting must-see content. If you like today's video and want more people to see it, share it on Twitter and Facebook!
We all know the scariest thing this Halloween is the idea of Mitt Romney as President-- but today's video goes even further to describe the potential result of a Romney presidency: a zombie apocalypse. Enjoy!
Watch below:
Happy Halloween everyone!
Check out all of our BOR videos of the day on the VOTD ...
This is BOR's Video of the Day, or VOTD, our nightly video clip segment highlighting must-see content. If you like today's video and want more people to see it, share it on Twitter and Facebook!
In a skit from last night's "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon," we see President Obama and Governor Mitt Romney sharing some post-debate beverages, Halloween costume ideas, and some final sentiments before the end of this long election on November 6th.
Watch below:
Check out all of our BOR videos of the day on the
This is BOR's Video of the Day, or VOTD, our nightly video clip segment highlighting must-see content. If you like today's video and want more people to see it, share it on Twitter and Facebook!
In this video, the president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America Cecile Richards explains how vital this election is for women's health.
Watch below:
From this video it's obvious to see that if there is anyone who is aware of how a Mitt Romney presidency could harm women, it's Cecile Richards.
Check out all of our BOR videos of t...
This is BOR's Video of the Day, or VOTD, our nightly video clip segment highlighting must-see content. If you like today's video and want more people to see it, share it on Twitter and Facebook!
If last night's debate didn't convince you even further which candidate will stand up for women, here is a video from MoveOn.org featuring Scarlett Johansson, Eva Longoria and Kerry Washington explaining Mitt Romney's plan to disenfranchise women's rights.
Watch below:
Obama stood firm last night on his record of passing legislation to ensure equal pay and pr...
This is BOR's Video of the Day, or VOTD, our nightly video clip segment highlighting must-see content. If you like today's video and want more people to see it, share it on Twitter and Facebook!
In this video created by Lucas Gray, we see the truth behind "trickle-down" economics. The narrator is none other than President Obama from a speech he gave at an Associated Press luncheon in April of this year. Gray, an animator for both The Simpsons and Family Guy, is able to illustrate the President's argument to why this policy has failed America.
Watch below:
Here's another round of statements from our elected officials on the federal court's voter ID decision. Read statements from the following after the jump:
Senator Kirk Watson
"During the upcoming legislative session, we will continue to fight in defense of civil liberties and the right to vote. We will also continue to push for greater transparency and openness in government, avoiding bad policy and legislation which results in expensive litigation and the misuse of state resources.We love Texas. But Texas can do better. And Texas deserves better from its elected leadership. The Texas Senate Democratic Caucus prioritizes the values of middle class Texans ̶ from voting rights to public education to access to quality health care."
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Representative Carol Alvarado
"The federal court's decision reaffirms what many of us have contended all along which is that the Voter ID law disenfranchised women, senior citizens, minorities and low-income voters. Last session the legislature overreached their authority in passing a law in which the sole purpose was to discriminate against certain groups. The Voter ID law was a solution in search of a problem; however, this misguided attempt would only have suppressed the vote of eligible voters. Texans can rejoice in knowing that every voter will continue to have the opportunity to exercise this fundamental right."
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Representative Charlie Gonzalez
"The judges noted that one third of Texas counties lack offices where people could secure an acceptable identification card and, 'a 200 to 250 mile round trip-especially for would-be voters having no driver's license-constitutes a "substantial burden" on the right to vote.' Even those who could make it would find 'none of Texas's DPS offices are open on weekends or past 6:00 PM, eliminating for many working people the option of obtaining an EIC on their own time [and] forces poorer citizens to choose between their wages and their franchise unquestionably denies or abridges their right to vote.' They did not note, but everyone should know, that the Texas legislature took no steps to lessen this burden."
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Senator Carlos Uresti
"The judges affirmed the very arguments that opponents made back during the session, that a picture ID requirement to gain access to the ballot box is an unfair and improper burden on a vast segment of society. It imposes strict, unforgiving burdens on the poor and racial minorities in Texas. The ruling lays bare the true intent of the Republicans' Voter ID law, which was designed to discourage racial minorities and poor people from participating in the democratic process."
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Chairman Steve Maxwell, Tarrant County Democratic Party
Two of the top Republican legislative priorities have now been revealed as exactly what they were meant to be by the repressive and backward-thinking Republican leaders of the legislature: nothing more, or less, than the disenfranchisement of Texas citizens.Fortunately for Texas, no matter how these laws were dressed up and distorted, the United States Court system saw through the deception and called it exactly what it was-- discrimination and disenfranchisement at its very worst. If this wording sounds familiar, note that this was the same thing being said about this legislation by the courageous Democrats who tried to defeat these bills in the legislature. Texas voters deserve better representation than what they are getting from the legislators who tried to enact these shameful bills."
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Representative Rafael Anchia
"I applaud the D.C. District Court and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder for defending the rights of Texas voters. The great threat to our Texas democracy is low voter turnout. Texas is dead last in the country in voter participation. Instead of working on that problem, Republicans in the legislature sought to further restrict our precious right to vote. Next session, I stand ready to work on bipartisan electoral reform that doesn't leave thousands of Texas voters behind. Other states have come up with legislation that both increases confidence in elections and protects our sacred voting rights."
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Chairman Gilberto Hinojosa
"On the heels of open hostility toward the Hispanic community through attacks on the Dream Act and support for Arizona type immigration laws, two US District Court panels have found that Texas Republican Legislators intentionally discriminated against Hispanics and other minorities in both their legislative redistricting plan and their harsh Voter ID law.Almost as soon as each of the Court rulings was released, Attorney General Gregg Abbott pledged to continue to waste more Texas taxpayer funds in an effort to have both Court rulings overturned. They're doubling down on discrimination and voter suppression against Hispanics in Texas. It will be interesting to see if the Great Republican Latino Hope, Ted Cruz will support the Federal District Court's ruling and embrace the most fundamental American right - THE RIGHT TO VOTE."
For the second time this week, the federal court has ruled against Attorney General Greg Abbott, this time striking down the Republican photo voter ID law. We've compiled a round of press statements from Texas' Democratic elected officials praising the court's ruling against the state's voter ID law. What a week!
You can find statements below the jump from the following:
Congressman Lloyd Doggett
"Twice in one week, a unanimous three-judge federal court has rejected Governor Perry's schemes to violate the Voting Rights Act. His continued defense of the indefensible represents a shameless waste of millions of taxpayer dollars."
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Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee
"A long, bitter, and bloody struggle was fought for the Voting Rights Act of 1965 so that all Americans could enjoy the right to vote, regardless of race, ethnicity, or national origin. Americans died in that fight so that others could achieve what they had been forcefully deprived of for centuries--the ability to walk freely and without fear into the polling place and cast a voting ballot. An election with integrity is one that is open to every eligible voter. Restrictive voter ID requirements degrade the integrity of our elections by systematically excluding large numbers of eligible Americans."
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Senator Leticia Van de Putte
"The D.C. court has wisely affirmed what we already knew: That the Voter ID law would serve as a barrier, keeping the most vulnerable Texans from exercising their legal right to vote. I hope the State of Texas will stop wasting taxpayer money on blocking legally registered voters from the polls, and instead put its resources toward both encouraging voter turnout and investigating real voter fraud, not chasing the 'voter impersonation' phantom."
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Senator José Rodríguez
"Today's decision to block Texas' voter ID law will ensure that the voices of Hispanic voters across El Paso, West Texas, and our state, will not be ignored as a result of highly partisan attempts to deny them the right to vote. This is a clear message that the state ought to stop trying to pass unconstitutional laws that infringe on the rights of Texas minorities, especially the millions of Hispanics in our state. Once again state leaders were unable to prove that the Voter ID law would not adversely impact minority voters. As the Department of Justice correctly argued, Hispanic registered voters, in particular, are less likely to have photo identification or the ability to acquire photo identification because of obstacles, such as the lack of transportation. This is why I voted against passage of the law. This has gone on for too long already. With the court's rejection this week of the state's redistricting proposals, it is clear that continued assaults on our cherished right to vote are unconstitutional and a distraction from the vital governance issues we face."
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Senator Wendy Davis
"Requiring photo identification could have, perhaps, been enacted fairly, but Governor Perry and state leaders insisted on forcing through a flawed law that would have wasted millions of taxpayer dollars without protecting a single vote. Texas leaders should be focusing on creating jobs instead of throwing money away on partisan politics."
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Senator Rodney Ellis
"I thank the DC Federal Court for standing up for voting rights and against discrimination and disenfranchisement. Throughout this entire process, Texas consistently failed to produce information showing the law would not have a discriminatory impact on minority voters. The Voting Rights Act exists for this exact purpose: protecting the ability of all Americans to access the ballot box. There are more UFO and Bigfoot sightings than documented cases of voter impersonation. After years of testimony and debate, supporters of Texas' voter ID law still cannot prove their case that voter impersonation is even a minor problem in Texas. We, unfortunately, have plenty of evidence that it will disenfranchise legal student, elderly, African American and Hispanic voters. The esteemed justices, like the Department of Justice before them, saw that evidence and made the right decision."
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Representative Garnet Coleman
"Today the court handed down another victory for the voters of Texas and upheld the heart of the Voting Rights Act. It's no surprise that Greg Abbott and his team were unable to make the case that the Voter ID Law would not have discriminatory or retrogressive results. This piece of legislation was crafted to do just that--disenfranchise minority voters and inhibit them from electing representatives of their choice. Not everyone has the ability to obtain or the luxury to afford an approved photo identification as prescribed by the Voter ID Law. People of color, the elderly, and college students would have been particularly harmed by the law. Shame on Greg Abbott for continuing to assault the voting rights of minority voters by advocating for a modern day poll tax. We are fortunate that the federal government continues to prevent Texas' attempts to use state law to suppress the votes of minorities, the elderly, and college students."