Current Status - Texas

As of June 2026, Texas continues to enforce some of the most restrictive laws affecting women’s rights in the country. With many of those policies now firmly embedded in state law, the primary battles have shifted from legislation to enforcement, litigation, and interstate legal conflicts.

In May, court rulings involving mifepristone briefly threatened access to mail-order prescriptions before the U.S. Supreme Court temporarily restored telehealth and mail access while litigation continues. Texas also continues pursuing legal actions involving out-of-state healthcare providers and abortion-pill distribution, further testing how aggressively the state can enforce abortion restrictions beyond its borders.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent Voting Rights Act ruling has also increased uncertainty around future district maps and voting-rights challenges in Texas, where multiple redistricting lawsuits are already ongoing.

Because Texas does not hold a regular legislative session in 2026, most current developments are unfolding through enforcement actions, litigation, and court decisions rather than new legislation.

Top 5 Things to Know

• Texas continues expanding abortion-pill enforcement efforts. State officials are pursuing legal action against out-of-state providers accused of mailing abortion medication into Texas.
• 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 (SB8) 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

With no new legislation in 2026, the focus has shifted to how these laws are enforced in practice, including expanded liability tied to abortion medication and ongoing legal challenges.

Abortion is banned in nearly all circumstances under SB 8 and HB 1280, with narrow medical exceptions that can be difficult to navigate in emergencies. In practice, this has created ongoing uncertainty for hospitals and healthcare providers treating miscarriages and pregnancy complications.

Enforcement efforts increasingly focus on abortion medication. HB 7, which took effect in late 2025, allows lawsuits against people involved in prescribing, mailing, or distributing abortion pills. In 2026, Texas also intensified legal action against out-of-state providers accused of mailing medication into Texas, testing how far the state can extend abortion enforcement beyond its borders.

Texas is also pursuing one of the first criminal cases against a healthcare provider under the state’s abortion ban. A Houston-area midwife faces civil and criminal allegations tied to abortion care, a case reproductive-rights groups say could shape how aggressively providers are investigated and prosecuted moving forward.

Not all women’s health policies are moving in the same direction. Texas expanded postpartum Medicaid coverage from two months to 12 months in 2024, a change health experts say could help address the state’s high maternal mortality rates.

Healthcare Access

Access to healthcare remains uneven across Texas, particularly in rural communities where hospital closures and provider shortages continue to limit care options. As of 2026, Texas continues to lead the nation in rural-hospital closures (two dozen since 2010), leaving many counties without full-service care.

Texas still has not expanded its Medicaid program, leaving many low-income adults without coverage. The state has instead continued relying on programs like the Texas Women’s Health Program, which was redesigned to exclude abortion providers. Reviews since then have been mixed at best, with the application and access being common pain points.

In 2025, lawmakers passed HB 18, a broad rural-health measure intended to stabilize hospitals, expand telehealth access, and improve rural healthcare financing.

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.

In 2026, some workplace-related policies are being contested through the courts, including a temporary ruling that blocked changes to a state program supporting women- and minority-owned businesses.

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.
• A 2025 law - SB 8 (separate from the state’s 2021 abortion law with the same bill number) now requires bathrooms in schools, government buildings, correctional facilities, and domestic-violence shelters to be used based on sex assigned at birth, raising safety and privacy concerns for transgender people. How the law will be applied in practice is likely to be the next area of debate.

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.

Texas is also one of several states now reassessing voting maps and representation following the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent Voting Rights Act ruling. Existing challenges to Texas congressional and legislative maps are ongoing, and the decision could make future voting-rights claims more difficult to pursue.

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

The states revisiting voting maps after the April VRA ruling (May 26)
When policy moves without lawmakers: A Texas case study (Apr 26)
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)

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