Pregnancy and Childbirth

The Best Placenta Recipes on the Internet!

I'm currently building a baby, and I realize that in addition to the gift of life, I've got this awesome placenta that's brewing in me, too. I'm told I have some choices to make about what I want to do with it when it, uh, comes out of the smoker. I'm all about the locavore movement, and it doesn't ... More >>

Texas is Last in High School Graduation, First in Hazardous Waste, and Other Depressing Tidbits from a New Legislative Report

The Texas Legislative Study Group is a caucus of around 50 Democratic representatives from the Texas House, and they're real buzzkills. The LSG keeps a full-time staff of policy analysts around, who almost every year since 2003 have released a report called "Texas on the Brink," detailing all the mo ... More >>

Here Are All The Reasons Why Texas Teenagers Can't Seem to Stop Getting Pregnant

Congratulations, Texas! After a lot of hard work and many long nights, we're number one in the nation for repeat teen births. According to the Centers for Disease Control, which released a new report on April 2, in 2010, 22 percent of Texas teenagers aged 15-19 who gave birth were delivering their ... More >>

State Rep. Jodie Laubenberg Files Pro-Life Favorite "Pre-Born Pain" Bill

Back in December, Governor Rick Perry announced with much pomp and circumstance that he would support the passage of a "fetal pain" bill this session in the Legislature. "Fetal pain" is one of the pet legislative projects of pro-life group Texas Right to Life this year; it's a total ban on abortions ... More >>

Texas Moms Kept From Breastfeeding in Public Could Soon Have the Right to Sue

Michelle Hickman, a Houston-area mother, became Internet famous in late 2011 when she was harassed by Target employees for publicly breastfeeding her infant. That happened despite Target's breastfeeding-friendly corporate policy and a 18-year-old state law that gives women the right to nurse "in any ... More >>

Texas Reps. Say Planned Parenthood Recruits Schoolkids, Aim to End Its Sex Ed Effort

Texas parents beware: your children are being "imperiled" by "abortion peddlers" who want to teach them "sex education." No. No, they're not. Although at some point someone might want to teach them to put a condom on a banana, and conservative lawmakers, predictably, want to make damn sure that per ... More >>

Texas AG Announces "Choose Life Advisory Committee" to Distribute Money Raised by Those Anti-Abortion License Plates

In May of 2011, in the midst of various other anti-abortion measures, Texas lawmakers approved SB 257, authored by Representative Larry Phillips, a Republican from Sherman, and Senator John Carona, a Republican from Dallas. The bill allowed for the sale of state-issued specialty "Choose Life" licens ... More >>

Texas Conservatives Observe 40th Anniversary of Roe v. Wade With Ridiculous Press Releases

Today is the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the landmark court case that originated in Texas with Norma McCorvey and ultimately led to the Supreme Court sweeping away a number of state and federal abortion restrictions. Because of Roe, terminating a pregnancy in the first trimester is between a wo ... More >>

Texas House Rep Allen Fletcher Files Bill To Tackle Non-Existent Problem of Sex-Selective Abortion

With the shiny new session of the Texas Legislature a mere six days away, your lawmakers are gearing up to debate some important issues, like handsy TSA agents and whether we should drug-test people who have the audacity to file for emergency welfare relief. But, as ever, some legislators are most ... More >>

Texas Wants a Detailed Report on All Abortions and Will Discipline Doctors Who Don't Comply

Last legislative session, Representative Bill Zedler, a Republican from Arlington, wanted to hear about abortions in Texas. All of them. In great detail. Zedler filed a piece of legislation that would have required a woman having an abortion to fill out and submit to the state a detailed question ... More >>

At the Opening of a Houston Pregnancy Center, Rick Perry Pledges To Help "Make Abortion A Thing of the Past"

Governor Rick Perry, it may shock you to learn, is not such a big fan of abortion. Perry vowed some time ago to create a new, Texas-run version of the Women's Health Program, one that would ban doctors from discussing or "promoting" abortion with their patients. It would also explicitly bar Planned ... More >>

In the Wake of Texas Baby Theft, the FBI Declares Infant Abductions a "Violent Trend"

On an otherwise ordinary April afternoon, 30-year-old nurse Verna McClain walked up to Kala Golden in the parking lot of a Spring, Texas, pediatric clinic and shot and killed Golden as she snatched a 3-day-old child from her arms, according to police. The infant was recovered unharmed about six hour ... More >>

Holy Crap That's a Lot of Kids: Woman Delivers Quintuplets at UT Southwestern

It happens, on average, 12 times per year in the United States: some lucky woman gives birth to five children, not spacing them comfortably over the course of several years but getting them out all at once. It happened in the span of five minutes in Dallas on Thursday, when a team of 50 doctors, nu ... More >>

Texas Multi-Mama Teryn Todd on Making Babies, Reality TV

After the rise and fall of "John and Kate plus Eight" and the on-going popularity of "Nineteen Kids and Counting," it shouldn't come as any surprise that a new multiples-themed reality show is slated to kick-off tonight. This one, though, takes place right here in the Lone Star State. It's called ... More >>

Survey Says Texas Schools Are Now a Little Less Awful at Teaching Students Sex Education

​Just three years ago, 94 percent of the state's school districts told their kiddos: Just say no to sex. And that was that when it came to sex ed -- abstinence only and nothing but, which was working out real well considering that Texas's teen-pregnancy rate was the third-highest in all the land. ... More >>

The Rising AIDS Epidemic Among Dallas's Young Poor People

Barbara Rios/Science Photo Library​The number of young people in Dallas contracting HIV and AIDS is increasing, KTVT-Channel 11 reported Monday, and those young people, ages 13 to 24, now make up 25 percent of all new diagnoses. And those stats were compiled before the state decided to gut fam ... More >>

My, How This Crisis is Growing

The End of Family Planning in Texas

They say they defunded Planned Parenthood. But lawmakers' attack on family planning will cost Texas money, reduce access to healthcare and result in even more abortions.

At the Last Minute, Texas Spikes Federal Sex Education Funding ... Again

Condoms, birth control -- who needs 'em? Just don't have sex, Texas says to its horny teens. Just hobble that unbridled desire coupled with a limited understanding of consequences and say 'No, I'm saving myself for marriage.' That's pretty much the message, maybe paired with an infographic demonstr ... More >>

Report: Dallas County Jail Still Shackling Those Oh-So-Dangerous Women in Labor

When the contractions start, the restrictions end. In theory, anyway.​Chief Uterus Correspondent Anna Merlan is on assignment. I know Anna usually handles the lady stuff, but if it's OK with you guys, I'm going to dispense some quick advice to the Female Friends of Unfair Park: If you gals ha ... More >>

Lawyer Says Dallas Woman Sued Halliburton After She Violated "Policy Against Procreation"

The Dallas case is one of many attorney Todd Kelly has brought against Halliburton.​A Dallas woman filed suit against Halliburton last week claiming she was fired after her supervisors learned she was pregnant. In court documents filed on December, 21, Lynda Darden alleges she was fired in the sum ... More >>

Truluck's Goes Fishing for Moms-to-Be

​A recent Truluck's promotion intended to celebrate customers' joyous events could send anxious mothers-to-be into a nutritional tizzy. Through tomorrow, the Uptown seafood restaurant is offering free stone claw crab appetizers to women who show their servers a sonogram performed that day. Bu ... More >>

Hear Me Roar

Those Suh-huh-mmer Niii-iiiiights

Mother and Child

Moms Gone Wired: One Woman's Journey Through the Mommy Blogosphere to Gain Parental Prowess and Free Stuff

Like a Virgin: How One So-Called "Bad Girl" Became a "Beautiful Young Lady"

The central question posed in this week's cover story is this: Can teaching rebellious young girls how to become old-school "ladies" save them from a cycle of teen pregnancy and poverty?Teen pregnancy is a riddle in Texas, a state that has the second-highest teen birthrate in the country behind Cali ... More >>

McCain Chooses Sarah Paulson For VP. No, Michael Palin. No, Wait ...

When Bad Religion Is Much, Much More Than a Punk Band's Name

Teaching Teens How to Parent and Stop Having Children

Battling the highest teen pregnancy rate in the nation, Texas counselors have their work cut out

Smokin' Baptists

You Say Can You C-Section?

The Gold Standard

Uptown Players offer up the "perfect" family

In the Inner City, An Alternative to Abortion

Dallas Takes a Pregnant Pause

Poor People Make Excellent Guinea Pigs

Prepare Your Protesting Accordingly

Belly Up, Baby

Dead Baby Jokes

With Ted Tally's Little Footsteps, Rover Dramawerks falls flat on its farce

Shannon McNally

Monday, August 1, at Gypsy Tea Room's "Tea Room"

One Love

Religions unite in prayer

Los Straitjackets

Thursday, September 23

Return of the Black Widow

Death and rumors have followed Sandra Bridewell for decades. But no one could predict the strange turn her life has taken today.

Cocktail Hours

The latest AIDS medications give life to the dying--but what kind of life?

Reel Thing

Feel to laugh at these antiquated filmstrips

The Why? Files

Try to care about the X-Files for one more week as Mulder returns.

Day in, day out

Motherhood and career get a modest, low-key look in The 24-Hour Woman

Thank you, ma'am

Medical City still practicing drive-through deliveries

Compulsive childbirth

Why my third time still wasn't the charm

Aborted cause

Ivan Reitman's Junior ruins many stellar comic opportunities