Groups unite to protect abortion, birth control access

Eleven advocacy groups, including the ACLU of Texas and NARAL Pro-Choice Texas, announced Wednesday a joint effort to protect and promote reproductive health care options, including access to abortion, birth control and comprehensive sex education.

The effort includes support for legislation, including ending the 24-hour waiting period before abortions and eliminating what doctors call misinformation in documents provided to abortion patients, that have been dead on arrival in previous legislative sessions.

But the coalition also supports a broader range of family and economic justice issues, including House Bill 656 by state Rep. Ina Minjarez, D-San Antonio, which would extend paid family leave to care for sick family members, a newborn or newly arrived foster or adopted child.

The coalition also announced support for House Bill 742 by Jessica Farrar, D-Houston, which would protect access to facilities by breastfeeding mothers; and House Bill 222 by state Rep. Donna Howard, D-Austin, to make contraceptives available to children under age 18, with parental consent, under the Children’s Health Insurance Program for low-income Texans, to help curb the state’s highest-in-the-nation rate of repeat teen pregnancies.

Read more: http://www.mystatesman.com/news/groups-unite-protect-abortion-birth-control-access/pqJ4QpXzWGVE5PlWZt1SGM/