Current Status - Summary

As of January 2025, Texas has some of the widest gaps in women’s rights protections nationwide. The state enforces one of the strictest abortion bans in the country, maintains highly restrictive voting policies, and has rolled back protections in education and public safety—burdens that fall hardest on rural and low-income communities. In recent years, Texas has also relied on novel enforcement strategies that bypass traditional legal safeguards, creating additional pressures on rights that are already restricted. Although the 2026 elections are unlikely to shift the state’s overall policy direction, their legislative actions continue to test legal boundaries and influence national debates.

Top 5 Things to Know

• Texas’s abortion ban now includes a new medication-abortion enforcement tool.
  HB 7, which took effect in December 2025, allows private lawsuits targeting anyone involved in prescribing, mailing, or manufacturing abortion pills, extending the state’s “bounty” model beyond in-state care.
• Emergency reproductive care remains legally risky for providers.
  Narrow medical exceptions under Texas abortion law continue to create uncertainty for hospitals treating miscarriages and other pregnancy complications.
• Rural healthcare access continues to erode.
  Hospital closures, provider shortages, and lack of Medicaid expansion are leaving many women without local access to basic care.
• Texas has blocked firearm-risk intervention tools.
  The state now bans enforcement of Extreme Risk Protection Orders, including those issued by other states.
• New bathroom restrictions affect schools and survivor spaces.
  A law that took effect on December 1 now requires bathrooms to be used based on sex assigned at birth in schools, government buildings, correctional facilities, and domestic-violence shelters.

Women's Health

Texas law continues to take a restrictive stance on reproductive health, while showing small, targeted gains in other areas of women’s healthcare designed to combat rising maternal mortality rates. Recent laws and court activity have intensified uncertainty for both patients and providers.

Reproductive Rights

• Abortion is banned in nearly all circumstances under SB 8 and HB 1280, with narrow medical exceptions that remain difficult to navigate in emergencies.
• Postpartum Medicaid coverage was expanded from 2 months to 12 months in 2024, a change that health experts say will save lives in a state with one of the nation’s highest maternal mortality rates.
• HB 7 (2025) created a medication-abortion “bounty” system, allowing lawsuits against anyone who prescribes, mails, or manufactures pills. The law took effect on December 5.
• Minors cannot consent to contraception independently, as Texas is one of only 4 states that require parental consent.

Healthcare Access

• Texas continues to lead the nation in rural-hospital closures (two dozen since 2010), leaving many counties without full-service care.
• As far back as 2013, the state decided to replace the Medicaid Women’s Health Program with the Texas Women’s Health Program to exclude abortion providers. Reviews since then have been mixed at best, with the application and access being common pain points.
• HB 18 (2025) aims to stabilize rural hospitals, expand telehealth, and create a new office for rural-health finance.
• The state still has not expanded Medicaid, leaving hundreds of thousands of low-income adults—many of them women—without coverage.
• Restrictions remain on gender-affirming mental-health care for minors.

Workplace Rights

Texas continues to align with federal minimums and offers limited state-level protections for workers.

• No state-mandated paid family leave for private-sector workers; most rely on employer policies or unpaid federal family leave (FMLA).
• A 2025 court decision upheld HB 2127, which significantly limits Texas cities’ ability to establish stronger local workplace protections, like water breaks for outdoor workers, or masks and earplugs for noise or air pollution, unless they are supported at the state level.
• Sexual-harassment liability was expanded in 2021 (SB 45/HB 21), strengthening protections for employees in smaller workplaces.
• Texas enacted the CROWN Act (2023) prohibiting hair-based discrimination.
• Federal breastfeeding protections apply; day-to-day access depends on workplace compliance.

Violence and Safety

Texas continues to face high rates of intimate-partner violence, and recent policy changes have weakened protective options for survivors.

• In 2023, 205 Texans were killed by intimate partners—179 were women—with firearms the leading cause.
• SB 1362 (2025), the Anti-Red-Flag Act, bans enforcement or recognition of ERPOs, including orders from other states. Note - An ERPO's main purpose is to temporarily remove firearms from individuals who pose a demonstrated risk of harming themselves or others.
• SB 8 now requires bathroom use based on sex assigned at birth in schools, government buildings, correctional facilities, and domestic-violence shelters—raising safety and privacy concerns, particularly for transgender women and girls. Enforcement appears to be the next tension point.

Voting and Civic Participation

Texas is considered to have some of the most restrictive voter laws in the country.

• SB 1 (2021) created stricter ID and mail-in ballot rules; additional changes in 2025 further tightened early-voting schedules and limited curbside voting.
• Texas’s ID-number matching rules for mail-in ballots have been linked to higher rejection rates when numbers don't match voter files.
• Lawmakers have floated “proof-of-citizenship” registration bills that would require a voter's current legal name to match a passport or birth certificate. A similar bill (the SAVE Act) was debated in Congress earlier this year.
• Texas does allow political candidates to use campaign funds for childcare, enabling more women to run for office.

Education

Texas continues to roll back diversity and equity protections across higher education and K–12 schools.

• SB 17 (2024) banned DEI offices and programs at public universities, resulting in significant staffing and service cuts—including programs supporting survivors of sexual violence and pregnant students.
• HB 900’s book-rating requirements continue to prompt removals of sex-education, puberty, and menstrual-health materials, despite ongoing litigation.
• SB 8’s bathroom requirements also apply to K–12 campuses, creating legal and safety concerns for transgender students and potential conflicts with federal Title IX enforcement.

Related WRDI Reporting

Texas Medicaid at a crossroads (Nov 25)
Texas mail-in voting rules will remain strict (Sep 25)
TX extends bounty hunter model to abortion pills (Sep 25)
Texas passes major rural health bill (Aug 25)
Postpartum Medicaid coverage expanded in Texas (Aug 25)
Texas passes anti-red-flag legislation (Jul 25)
TX - Impact of the Heartbeat Act (Jul 25)
Support for college women in Texas keeps getting thinner (Jun 25)