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Shannon Najmabadi is the women’s health reporter at The Texas Tribune, where she started as a fellow in 2017. Her stories — on higher education and other topics — have prompted lawmakers to change three state laws, including one involving a very narrow definition of the word “pickle.” She is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley and Columbia University.
The number of reported maternal deaths has increased nationwide in recent decades. Health experts and advocates say giving low-income moms Medicaid coverage for a year after delivery, rather than two months, could save lives. Full Story
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The slate of bills must still go to the House for approval. Full Story
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Ricardo Ramos, Ramon Fuentes III and Andres Arguelles were all 45. Loving husbands. Strangers who died with the coronavirus in neighboring South Texas cities. They left behind young widows who found each other in Facebook groups and bonded over the similarities in their stories. Full Story
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The provisions are packaged in one of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s priority measures, dubbed the “heartbeat bill.” Senate Bill 8 would ban abortions as early as six weeks, before many women know they are pregnant. Full Story
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Twenty-one states signed onto the multi-state lawsuit led by Texas and Montana. Full Story
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The legislative session that began in January has been driven by the coronavirus pandemic and the response to last month’s power crisis. But abortion-related measures dominated a Senate State Affairs committee hearing Monday, and lawmakers advanced all of the proposals. Full Story
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Health officials had told Planned Parenthood's Medicaid patients they had until early February to find new doctors, but the health provider filed an emergency lawsuit saying the state had not followed the proper procedures. Full Story
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Similar bills filed in the Texas Legislature in previous years have failed. Full Story
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One woman whose husband died said Gov. Greg Abbott’s decision to end the mask mandate makes the convenience of not wearing a mask seem more important than loss of life. Abbott's spokesperson says he “joins all Texans in mourning every single life lost.” Full Story
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Electric bills are likely to rise for everyone, experts and consumer advocates say, but some Texans on variable rate contracts have been hit with immediate, massive price spikes. Lawmakers and the governor have promised to help, but haven't said how. Full Story
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Texans face a cascade of frustrations and expenses as the state tries to recover from the storm. Insurance companies are bracing for claims rivaling those after major hurricanes, and homeowners are trying to find plumbers and electricians. Full Story
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Texas residents said the storm — and ensuing partial collapse of the state's power system — sapped what mental reserves they had left after eleven months of a global health crisis that has cost thousands of jobs and claimed more than 40,000 lives in the state. Full Story
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Now praised as heroes of the pandemic, nurses and other front-line medical workers have been routinely scratched, bitten or verbally abused by patients. Well over half of Texas' nurses reported being subject to workplace violence in their career, according to a 2016 state study. Full Story
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Their plea comes just days after a state district judge temporarily stopped the state from excluding Planned Parenthood from Medicaid, a government health insurance program for the poor. A hearing is scheduled for later this month. Full Story
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A state district judge ruled Wednesday. That's the same day the state had given Planned Parenthood patients to find new doctors after the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals sided with Texas officials who have long sought to block the health provider from participating in Medicaid. Full Story
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With the GOP in control of state government and “a favorable backstop from the courts, it’s going to be a no-holds-barred approach for Republicans on abortion,” one political science professor said. Full Story
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As the state began the massive undertaking of distributing the coronavirus vaccine, early data problems left state officials with immunization records that were outdated, incomplete and sometimes misleading. Full Story
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The state's health commission gave Planned Parenthood's Medicaid patients until Feb. 3 to find new doctors. Experts say there are limited places low-income patients can go, in part because Texas already has a shortage of doctors who accept Medicaid due to the state’s low payment rates. Full Story
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The state has reported at least 28,545 fatalities tied to the virus, available intensive care unit beds are at a low and health experts say Texans can’t vaccinate their way out of the current surge. Full Story
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It does not cause a more severe disease, and vaccines “are expected to be effective against it,” the health services department said of the strain. Full Story
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