11th Annual Huber Population Lecture, Dr. Joseph E. Potter, University of Texas

In 2011, after the Texas Legislature had cut the family planning grant budget by two-thirds and mandated a sonogram and a 24-hour waiting period for abortion care, the Texas Policy Evaluation Project or TxPEP was launched to assess the impact of these two measures.  Two years later, the legislature would go on to remove Planned Parenthood from its fee-for-service family planning program, and pass a far stronger omnibus abortion restrictions bill, HB 2.  Both of these measures were challenged in court, and TxPEP investigators were called upon to be expert witnesses in the respective cases.  The challenge to the omnibus abortion law eventually reached the Supreme Court of the United States as Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt.  In a landmark judgement, on June 27, 2016, the Court ruled 5–3 that Texas cannot place restrictions on the delivery of abortion services that create an undue burden for women seeking an abortion.  This talk will review the research that TxPEP carried out, its relation to the various court cases, and the role that it may have played in the evolution of state and national policies regarding family planning and abortion care.