TEXAS SENATE OKS EXTENDING POSTPARTUM MEDICAID — WITH AN ANTIABOTION AMENDMENT

THE SENATE PASSED SUN-

DAY. A LAST-MINUTE ANTI-ABORTION AMENDMENT MEANS THE BILL WILL GO BACK TO THE HOUSE

By Eleanor Klibanoff, TexasTribune.org

coverage for new moms.

But now, in the wake of the overturn of Roe v. Wade, and with maternal deaths and injuries continuing to accelerate in Texas, a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers and advocacy groups have pushed the bill nearly to the finish line. Texas is one of just 11 states that has not expanded Medicaid, leaving one in four women of childbearing age without health insurance. It’s easier to qualify for Medicaid during pregnancy, and fifty percent of births in Texas are paid for by the federal program.

women who give birth or suffer “natural loss of the child. This does not include pregnancies that end through elective abortion.”

Sen. Nathan Johnson, D-Dallas, said including this language was unnecessary considering the near-total prohibition on abortion in Texas. Speaking to the members Kolkhorst said this amendment was intended to appease, Johnson noted that women who had illicit abortions were unlikely to try to seek Medicaid coverage after the fact. “In the meantime, the entire program is vulnerable to not being approved by [the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid] precisely because of this language,” Johnson said. “I don’t want to gamble with women’s lives…so I wish you’d take these words out.”

“I respect that,” Kolkhorst said in response. “I’m really working through something that’s very complicated on this floor with a number of members … This is where we are tonight.”

Kolkhorst said her amendment served to quash other amendments that senators intended to try to attach to the bill, which would have “jeopardized” Texas’ application. Sen. Kelly Hancock, R-North Richland Hills, who Kolkhorst said she spoke with at great length on Sunday, pinned the issue on the federal government.

“It's my opinion that as Texans we're reaching out more than halfway to address the concerns of the federal government,” Hancock said. “If they fail us on this one, then they're failing the women in the state of Texas.”

The bill, with amendment attached, will now go to the House, which can either accept it or go to a conference committee to negotiate the difference. Gov. Greg Abbott has said he supports the legislation.

This bill has been years in the making, as the state’s own maternal mortality task force has called again and again for a full year of Medicaid

But under current state law, those new moms lose their health insurance just two months after giving birth. At that point, many women are still dealing with birth complications and postpartum depression, and a full quarter of all maternal deaths in Texas in 2019 occurred after that period of coverage would have expired.

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