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In September, Planned Parenthood announced its lawsuit to stop HB2, the extremely restrictive anti-choice bill passed this summer. On Monday, a judge in Austin will hear arguments in Planned Parenthood v. Abbott. Unfortunately, it's also the week when state agencies begin finalizing its implementation.

Americans are beginning to celebrate a healthier future for our country. Millions of people will receive coverage, no co-pays for preventive care, an end to discrimination based on pre-existing conditions, out-of-pocket expense caps, and much more. But one thing seems to be missing from this incredible list of health benefits: abortion coverage for poor Texans.

A bipartisan bill to fund and reopen the government passed both the Senate and House of Representatives. Though many from the right side of the aisle joined Democrats in stopping this kamikaze mission, nary a single Texas Republican voted for it.

Julia Trigg Crawford is one of a handful of Texas property owners waging a fierce battle against the TransCanada Keystone XL pipeline. The foreign-owned corporation didn’t have to prove it was serving the common good or follow the statutes to declare its right to eminent domain. Nor did they have to prove it was a common carrier to get a permit giving them the right to operate a pipeline in Texas. Crawford found she was fighting not just for herself, but for all American property owners — and the planet, too.

Rural Texas women have been hit hard by the state's regressive and pro-privatization policies. The private bus services small towns were using have closed up shop, leaving for more lucrative big city routes. Women who relied on those buses are left stranded.

At a forum in Clear Lake, TX, all four Republican candidates for the state's Lieutenant Governor stated their support for a repeal of the 17th amendment, which allows for direct election of U.S. Senators rather than election by a state's legislature. Let that sink in: The four Republicans vying for the second most powerful position in the state don't think Texas voters should select their own U.S. Senators.

HB 2 is another anti-woman bill placing undue burdens on Texas women looking to get an abortion. A study by the Texas Policy Evaluation Project shows that just one of the provisions might hinder two out of three women from receiving the procedure.

A Republican official who is running to be Texas’ next attorney general has defended white supremacists, Mormon fundamentalists and a militant Jewish group that plotted the assassination of a US congressman, the Texas Observer has found.

Texas isn't the only state attempting to restrict women's access to reproductive health rights. Louisiana did too, and a recent federal court decision shows how the Louisiana law could have implications in Texas and Mississippi, too. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals stopped a challenge to a Louisiana law that treated abortion providers differently from other physicians who don't provide the procedure.

In the continuing battle over funding for the Affordable Care Act, now focused on the contents of a Continuing Resolution necessary for the government to continue to run, women's healthcare has become the House GOP's new target. Because what is religious liberty if not the ability to impose your own religious beliefs on your employees' decisions about their bodies?

On Thursday, ElectWendyDavis.com was launched in the latest round of Republican sexism against Wendy Davis. The site's creator to Andrew Stiles, a political reporter at the conservative National Review Online. The site is registered at the Washington D.C. K street address of the Center for American Freedom, a nascent conservative think tank, at which Stiles formerly worked.

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.