McKenna West fled to Texas to give birth last month, saying she could not trust the biological parents after they asked her to get an abortion.
The decision clears the way for the 1-month-old’s biological parents to relocate him from Dallas to Los Angeles, where the couple lives, to seek treatment there. Their surrogate wants him in Texas.
The announcement ends a nearly year-long dispute with the Centers For Medicare and Medicaid Services over the funding to Texas hospitals, which were slated to lose $27 million a day.
The Department of Family and Protective Services has been slowly moving foster services to contractors who aren’t giving enough details on costs, the Legislative Budget Board said.
McKenna West has appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, saying she does not trust that the biological parents have the child's best interest at heart.
Outdated technology and stricter requirements for Medicaid and SNAP food assistance have made it harder for Texas to give timely approval to applications, state officials and advocates say.
After Texas banned nearly all abortions, patients have struggled to get ectopic care. More than 300 patients here experienced substantial blood loss in 2023 and 2024, compared to 2018 and 2019.
The attorney general won a lawsuit against the feds for withholding a Medicaid funding stream three years ago. Texas faces the same cut, but Paxton has stayed quiet.
If not carefully vetted, candidates’ proposals to lower costs could exacerbate future affordability issues, experts say.
Abbott’s spokesman reiterated that Texas is not doing anything wrong that would disqualify hospitals from receiving nearly $10 billion in Medicaid funding annually.
Starting Sept. 1, the Trump administration will withhold about $9.8 billion in extra funding that helps hospitals cover the difference between Medicaid payments and the actual cost of services.
Texas moms and surrogates say lawmakers can sharpen protections for both parties in contracts and regulate surrogacy agencies, but caution against severely limiting the practice.
The attorney for the couple’s surrogate McKenna West said in court she should be the mother of the newborn. The biological parents have a restraining order against West.
A surrogate’s fight for custody over the baby she birthed last week could lead to more restrictions on the rights of biological parents and on abortion clauses in surrogacy agreements.
Rio Grande Valley residents are unhappy with the economy, salaries, and other factors. That could sway their political views, according to political watchdogs.
An Alaskan surrogate has traveled to Texas for legal protection after a California couple has refused treatment for a severe heart condition.
A federal judge recently ruled that Texas must give defendants who are mentally incompetent to stand trial a state hospital bed within 21 days.
Public health officials said some parents are confused about what vaccines are required to attend Texas schools amid efforts to change recommendations.
Clinics with better internet connections are now offering telehealth services to patients who can’t do it from their homes.
Although several synthetically derived cannabis products will be banned on July 31, delta-9 THC products will still remain legal.
The limited resumption will allow a southern port of entry in Arizona to reopen in phases. The move comes after 41 of 42 cases of screwworm have been reported in Texas.
The ruling says Attorney General Ken Paxton didn’t prove his allegations that the Houston-area clinics performed abortions when a lower court’s injunction forced them to close.
MD Anderson is a global leader in cancer research, tapping hundreds of foreign-born scientists. Now Gov. Greg Abbott’s restrictions on H-1B visas may limit the talent pool.
The Department of Family and Protective Service’s action comes four months after it placed EMPOWER into receivership in the wake of the deaths of two children under its care and staffing problems.
Abortion isn’t polling as high as other issues that matter to women voters, and Democrats have also retreated on the topic.
Texas officials have sued a Houston area postpartum center as well as investigated Rio Grande Valley hospitals over allegations of soliciting foreigners to have babies on U.S. soil.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is barring horses, pigs, cattle and other animals from Texas due to concerns over New World screwworm, a parasitic fly.
The Janice A. Pattillo Early Childhood Research Center will close classrooms in phases over the next few years, beginning with infants in the 2027-28 academic year.
As of February, 21% of Texans who enrolled in a plan through the federal marketplace did not pay their first premium.
Last month, the Texas Republican Party included in its platform a ban on foreigners using American surrogates, arguing the practice allows children born under these circumstances to obtain U.S. citizenship.
Lawmakers and experts pin the blame for rising insurance costs on health companies consolidating and creating less competition.
Just 2% of Texas voters call abortion the state’s most pressing problem. Advocates are reframing the issue as one of reproductive healthcare that affects families’ pocketbooks.
Despite the spike in demand for measles shots following the deadly 2025 outbreak, exemptions on all vaccines for schoolchildren rose after the release of a downloadable exemption form.
The Texas Tribune has created a searchable database of the latest vaccine rates for school districts and private schools and how they’ve changed in the last year.
As Texas focuses on digital literacy for its elder residents, some Japanese cities are gifting low-cost devices to its older population so family can better monitor them.
Faced with a modern outbreak that could endure for decades, historical documents are offering officials solutions to eradicate the parasite again.
Lynn Callaway says she was sent home from two hospitals, despite an infection, due to healthcare providers’ fear of the state’s abortion ban.
State leaders and pro-life groups are siding with 2-year-old Annelise Camp’s family, who are suing to stop Texas Children’s Hospital from testing her for brain death.
Delegates to the Texas GOP convention recently adopted a platform calling in-vitro fertilization destructive to fetal life.
The Houston hospital must set up the facility within 90 days of signing a settlement agreement with the Texas attorney general and and create a list of potential gender affirming patients, according to a document obtained by The Texas Tribune.
The lawsuit comes after a Galveston County family said their 13-year-old daughter was sexually assaulted by a person she interacted with on the platform.
The agency said Mary Liz Eastland failed to develop adequate emergency plans before a flood killed 25 campers and two counselors last year.
Advocates say the federal government’s new work requirements and immigration crackdown has limited food stamp participation. The state says the recent decline is part of normal fluctuations in enrollment.
Attorney General Ken Paxton said on Friday that Texas Children’s must also pay $10 million to the state because it illegally provided transgender care to kids.
Some smoke shops say the flurry of court actions since March 31 has already forced them to scale back hours, cut staff and prepare to shut down.
In 2023, the Food and Drug Administration started allowing mifepristone to be delivered by mail. The federal courts are deciding whether to pull that permission.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that mifepristone must be obtained in person, a decision the country’s highest court has temporarily blocked.
Ketamine industry leaders say Texas Medical Board’s proposal to require physician supervision or limit treatments to two people at a time will force clinics to close.
The Texas Supreme Court lifted temporary injunctions protecting three families and members of PFLAG, Inc., after CPS cases were dropped.
In 2025, one in three children placed in foster care was sent to a different region, sometimes hundreds of miles away, a Texas Tribune analysis of state data shows.
The couple’s latest $750 million investment will help build a new Austin medical center that will provide specialized care, such as MD Anderson cancer treatment, and integrate AI into care.
Jennifer Shuford, an infectious disease physician who oversaw the country’s largest measles outbreak in 30 years, is among a slate of CDC nominations with no apparent ties to the anti-vaccine movement.
The U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled conversion therapy is free speech. Some LGBTQ+ advocates say the ruling applies to gender-affirming therapy, too, while others say the courts won’t protect them.
Some Texans on SNAP say the ban on using food stamps to buy sugary drinks and candy prevents quick fixes to low blood sugar conditions.
After a dizzying string of court actions on smokeable hemp this week, Texas 15th Court of Appeals agreed to allow the sale of the drug until May 14.
The federal government is penalizing states for having a high error rate in their payments to food stamp recipients.
Texas has added 28 more measles cases in the last two weeks. Most infections so far this year have occurred inside West Texas Detention Facility in Hudspeth County.
The state’s effort will get a boost from the federal government thanks to a new executive order from President Donald Trump.
4:42 P.M.Huey Ellis purchases smokeable hemp-derived THCA products at Happy Clouds smoke shop in Austin on March 30, 2026, the day before Texas bans the sale of them. 4:48 P.M.Ellis poses for a portrait after purchasing smokeable hemp-derived THCA products the day before Texas bans the sale of them. 4:55 P.M.Hemp flower under a magnifying […]
Since Gov. Greg Abbott ordered Texas hospitals to start asking patients for their citizenship status in November 2024, reported visits by undocumented immigrants have dropped.
Most of the state’s measles cases reported so far this year are inside the West Texas Detention Facility in Hudspeth County, where four infected El Paso residents worked.
Independent rural pharmacists are starting other businesses or selling baby shower gifts to keep their stores operating. Pharmacy deserts affect 4 million Texans.
New rules from state health officials ban smokeable intoxicating hemp products, including pre-rolled joints and hemp flower.
The state said EMPOWER needed more time to improve conditions after two children died under the contractor's care over the years.
The state health department reports that 99 of the cases originated in a contracted detention facility in Hudspeth County.
Seven months after escaping the Target shooting, an Austin mother and daughter navigate trauma, fear and unexpected growth.
After one of El Paso’s only pediatric endocrinologists was accused of illegally providing gender-transitioning treatments to kids, his patients who aren’t transgender lost care.
Attorneys for hemp businesses say the raids have hurt their revenue and reputation, while police said they’re necessary to root out products with illegal levels of THC.
The latest outbreak comes after a spate of COVID-19 and tuberculosis cases were reported at Camp East Montana, which holds more than 3,000 immigrants.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton issued an opinion that says that a 2023 law that bans gender-transitioning medical care to minors also applies to mental health care.
The lawsuit against the multimedia messaging app's company is just one in a series of actions that the state has taken against social media companies.
Government sources and advocates for the children worry the goal is to concentrate them in Texas, where abortion is banned.
Intersex Texans fear House Bill 229, which defines gender based on the reproductive system, could increase surgeries on intersex children and create challenges to obtaining sex changes on government documents.
The course includes examples of when abortion is permitted to protect the life of the patient, but many experts say the complications women face in pregnancy are impossible to capture in a brief presentation.
A Travis County judge on Wednesday ruled against a request to stop the Dementia Prevention and Research Institute, but because the lawsuit is still in play, the fund can’t go into effect.
As a part of a yearlong study, Texas county jails are collecting data about pregnant inmates’ prenatal care, mental health indicators, pregnancy outcomes and more.
Paxton's suit follows another by a Galveston County man against the same doctor. Both cite House Bill 7, passed in September, that allows lawsuits over abortion pill access.
The cases come amid renewed nationwide scrutiny of the facility following the transfer there of Liam Conejo Ramos, a 5-year-old Ecuadorian boy who federal agents arrested along with his father in Minneapolis.
Immigration experts weigh in on who is affected by Gov. Greg Abbott’s order, what the impact will be on employers and how certain sectors might be affected.
In Kerr County, the July 4 flood is expected to quadruple serious emotional disturbances in children and more than triple adult PTSD cases this year.
In 2024, Texas also sued a New York provider accused of prescribing abortion pills, but her state’s law has shielded her from prosecution.
While GOP lawmakers accused the Austin Democrat of overstating his role in passing a statewide cap on insulin copays, his Democratic colleagues said his personal battle with diabetes generated key momentum for the effort.
The groups that operate Texas’ 988 system face a convergence of challenges this year, from expiring federal money to heavier workloads since the Trump administration eliminated the special option for LGBTQ youth.
The ACA enrollment figure indicates a stabler marketplace and less coverage loss than many experts and insurers feared, though the number could drop once premium bills become due.
The Texas Department of Public Safety has issued provisional licenses to nine new medical marijuana operators while existing ones have started opening new manufacturing and cultivating facilities.
Hemp advocates say raising annual licensing fees for retailers from $150 to $20,000 and for manufacturers from $250 to $25,000 would shutter small businesses.
Texas joins 17 other states that are making it easier for foreign medical graduates to work as doctors here. About a quarter of the state’s licensed doctors were trained outside the U.S.
Edinburg Rep. Monica De La Cruz was the only Texas Republican to break with her party and vote with all Democrats and a handful of Republicans on a key healthcare bill.
Several court hearings and policies affecting education, health and more will roll out in the new year.
