Today is
Monday March 31, 2025
With NCAA basketball tournaments here, David Rancken’s App Of The Day keeps you in the loop. David’s app is called March Madness Live. You can download March Madness Live in the Apple Store and Google Play below.
WINNSBORO — Winnsboro ISD announced their new high school principal on Monday night during their school board meeting. According to our news partner KETK, Dr. Cody Holloway, currently associate principal at Royse City ISD, has been named to the position. Dr. Holloway has 14 years of experience at Terrell ISD, Red Oak ISD and Pine Tree ISD.
In a release from the district Holloway said, “I am excited for the opportunity to join Winnsboro ISD. I am passionate about creating an educational environment where every student can thrive and grow. Furthermore, I believe it is important to build positive relationships with students, staff, and community members.”
CARTHAGE – Our news partner, KETK, reports that the Carthage Police Department has arrested the suspect accused of hitting a 5-year-old child with their car on Sunday.
According to officials, the suspect, Jhavorry Crayton, was found in Longview on Thursday afternoon and was arrested by the Longview Police Department. Crayton was taken to the Gregg County Jail and charged with collision involving injury, evading arrest and tamper or fabricating with physical evidence. Read the rest of this entry »
(AP) — At least 41 people are dead after a weekend of dynamic storms unleashed tornadoes, blinding dust and wildfires — leaving behind uprooted trees and flattening hundreds of homes and businesses across seven states in the U.S. South and Midwest.
Weather forecasters gave an unusual “high risk” designation to the storm system, which began Friday before tapering off Sunday. For now, people in the affected communities are surveying damage as some brace for more potentially damaging weather.
“It’s not that uncommon to get impacts across that many states, but this one was even on the stronger side of what we would typically see,” Marc Chenard, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said Monday.
Here’s what to know about the unusually erratic and destructive weather system that socked central and eastern portions of the U.S.
Where and how did people die?
Missouri has reported the most deaths with at least 12 lost to tornadoes. Mississippi lost six people to tornadoes.
Two boys, ages 11 and 13, were killed when a tree fell on their home in western North Carolina on Sunday, according to a statement from Connestee Fire Rescue. Relatives said two children were trapped in their bedroom and both succumbed to their injures before firefighters could reach them, officials said.
At least three people were killed in central Alabama when tornadoes swept across the state. John Green found the body of his neighbor, Dunk Pickering, who killed by a tornado in Plantersville on Saturday night. Residents spent hours pulling people from the rubble and carrying them to paramedics who were unable to reach the area because of fallen trees blocking the roads.
Kansas reported eight deaths and Texas three, due to vehicle crashes caused by dust storms.
Oklahoma reported four people dead from high winds or fires, and Arkansas has reported three.
Multiple tornadoes in several states
There was a significant outbreak of tornadoes, with 46 on Friday and 41 on Saturday, according to a preliminary count, Chenard said. There were no reports of tornadoes on Sunday, but there were reports of wind damage, especially from West Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York.
Two strong tornadoes tore through the same Mississippi county roughly within an hour of the other on Saturday, according to a preliminary report from the National Weather Service.
The twisters had preliminary ratings of EF-2 and EF-3, out of a rating scale of 0 to 5. They caused devastating damage in Walthall County, in far southern Mississippi, and the town of Tylertown, where tall trees were ripped in half and entire neighborhoods wiped out.
Six people were killed and more than 200 were displaced, Gov. Tate Reeves said.
Wayne County, Missouri, resident Dakota Henderson said he and others rescuing trapped neighbors Friday found five bodies scattered in rubble outside what remained of his aunt’s house. Scattered tornadoes killed at least a dozen people in the state Friday, authorities said.
Coroner Jim Akers of Butler County, Missouri, described the home where one man was killed as “just a debris field.”
“The floor was upside down,” he said. “We were walking on walls.”
Wildfires and dust storms also proved deadly
Wind-driven wildfires caused extensive damage in Oklahoma and officials in both Oklahoma and Texas warned that parts of both states would again face an increased risk of fire danger this week.
More than 130 fires were reported across the state on Friday and over 400 homes were damaged. Oklahoma officials said Sunday evening that the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner had confirmed four fatalities related to fires or high winds across the state.
Dust storms spurred by high winds resulted in eight deaths Friday after at least 50 vehicles crashed on a highway, according to the state highway patrol. Authorities said three people also died in car crashes during a dust storm in Amarillo, in the Texas Panhandle.
Another system coming this week
The National Weather Service said weekend tornado watches had mostly expired, but dangerous winds were still possible in the Carolinas, east Georgia and northern Florida through Sunday.
Another system is moving out of the Rockies and into the Plains in coming days, Chenard said. The threat of winter weather picks up on Tuesday into Wednesday in Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Wisconsin and Michigan, with significant snow and wind bringing hazardous conditions.
To the south, across portions of the Plains, there will be drier air, bringing fire weather risk.
“We’re almost certainly going to see fire” on Monday and Tuesday, said Keith Merckx at Oklahoma Forestry Services. “These fires, once they get started, become really hard to stop. They move more quickly than our resources can keep up with.”
Recovery efforts
President Donald Trump said the White House was monitoring the storms and would assist state and local officials to help in the recovery. He said National Guard troops were deployed to Arkansas.
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DALLAS (AP) — As Oklahomans assessed the devastation from wildfires that whipped across the state, damaging or destroying hundreds of homes, officials in both Oklahoma and Texas warned Sunday of an increased risk of fire danger in the coming week.
“We’re going to be back into a critical area,” Oklahoma Forestry Services spokesperson Keith Merckx said Sunday.
Nearly 300 homes and structures were damaged or destroyed as more than 130 wildfires were reported across the state on Friday, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt said at a Saturday news conference. Officials said Sunday that at least two people had died because of the severe weather in Oklahoma.
Jeremy Cook was among the residents in Stillwater, a city of about 50,000 located about 65 miles (100 kilometers) northeast of Oklahoma City, who returned home Saturday morning to find that his house was gone. Cook told The Oklahoman that when his family fled Friday, they loaded up three cars with photographs, pets, books and paintings.
After returning to find his home burned to the foundation, he said he was going back and forth “between laughing and crying.”
A preliminary count found that least 50 homes and structures were destroyed or damaged in Stillwater as multiple fires broke out, fire Chief Terry Essary said at a news conference Saturday. The fires spread rapidly and crews had difficulty containing each one because of the high winds and low humidity. He said they quickly became overwhelmed.
“Nobody has enough resources to fight fires when the wind is blowing 70 mph,” Essary said. “It’s an insurmountable task.”
Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management spokesperson Keli Cain said Sunday that two people have been killed as a result of the weather and wildfires. She said one person died in Garfield County in a vehicle accident due to poor visibility due to dust or smoke and that a man had also died in Lincoln County.
Deborah Ferguson told News 9 that her husband, Allen Ferguson, was killed in Lincoln County. She said that her husband and her 15-year-old son had been fighting a wildfire in a pasture on Friday and as they fled on a four-wheeler, it crashed into a tree amid heavy smoke. She said her son was badly burned and is hospitalized.
Erin O’Connor, a spokesperson with the Texas A&M Forest Service, said the region on Friday had the “perfect recipe for wildfires” with high winds, dry conditions and above normal temperatures. She said that less wind on Sunday had helped crews get a handle on the fires but that more fire activity was expected this coming week.
One of the largest fires in Texas currently had burned about 14 square miles (36 square kilometers) near Fredericksburg, west of Austin, but was 40% contained by Sunday, she said.
The winds that swept across Texas and Oklahoma were so strong that they turned over several tractor-trailers. Authorities have said three people were killed in car crashes during a dust storm caused by high winds in the Texas Panhandle on Friday.
After touring the damage in Stillwater and Mannford, a city of about 3,000 located about 20 miles (32 kilometers) west of Tulsa, on Saturday, Stitt went on to survey the damage at his ranch outside of Oklahoma City, where his home there had burned to the ground.
“We’ll be rebuilding with the rest of Oklahoma,” Stitt said in a video posted on X. “You never think it’s going to happen to your place and these wildfires just come out of nowhere and can really take over.
TYLERTOWN, Miss. (AP) — Unusually vicious and damaging weather across multiple U.S. states spawned violent tornadoes, blinding dust storms and fast-moving wildfires this weekend, leaving at least 37 people dead.
Hailey Hart and her fiancé Steve Romero hunkered down with their three huskies inside their 1994 Toyota Celica as a tornado ripped apart their home Saturday in Tylertown, Mississippi.
Romero said he prayed out loud and hugged Hart as the car rolled onto its side, windows shattering, before it landed on its wheels again. After the twister passed, they could hear people nearby screaming for help.
“It was a bad dream come true,” Romero said.
Next door, Hart’s grandparents crawled out from the rubble of their destroyed house after they sought shelter in a bathroom as falling trees collapsed the roof.
“Everything was coming down on us,” said Donna Blansett, Hart’s grandmother. “All I could do was pray to God to save us.”
They escaped with just a few scratches and aches. Family members, friends and volunteers spent Sunday removing debris and salvaging anything they could find — some damp clothes, a photo album and a few toiletries.
“I’m so happy you’re alive,” Hart said through tears, as she embraced her grandmother on Sunday.
The National Weather Service said tornado watches had mostly expired, but dangerous winds were still possible in the Carolinas, east Georgia and northern Florida through Sunday evening.
Forecasters warned of dangerous conditions that turned deadly
The dynamic storm that began Friday earned an unusual “high risk” designation from weather forecasters. Still, experts said it’s not unusual to see such weather extremes in March.
President Donald Trump said in a post on his social media network that his administration is ready to assist affected communities.
“Please join Melania and me in praying for everyone impacted by these terrible storms!” he posted Sunday.
At least three people, including an 82-year-old woman, were killed in central Alabama when multiple tornados swept across the state.
In Troy, Alabama, parks officials said the recreation center where many residents had taken refuge had to be closed due to damage from overnight storms. No one was injured.
“We are thankful the Lord provided protection over our community, and over 200 guests at the Recreation Center storm shelter on Saturday night,” the parks department said in a statement.
Fatalities from twisters in battered Missouri reach 12
Missouri resident Dakota Henderson said he and others rescuing trapped neighbors found five bodies scattered in rubble Friday night outside what remained of his aunt’s house in hard-hit Wayne County. Scattered twisters killed at least a dozen people in the state, authorities said.
“It’s really disturbing for what happened to the people, the casualties last night,” Henderson said Saturday, not far from the splintered home he said they rescued his aunt through a window of the only room left standing.
Coroner Jim Akers of Butler County, Missouri, described the home where one man was killed as “just a debris field.”
“The floor was upside down,” he said. “We were walking on walls.”
Six deaths in Mississippi; three die in Arkansas
In Mississippi, Gov. Tate Reeves announced that six people died and more than 200 were displaced after tornadoes sowed devastation across three counties. And in the northern part of the state, roads were inundated and some people were stranded by flood waters.
One of the deaths occurred in Covington County, where Seminary resident Traci Ladner said she watched a tornado knock down trees and power lines and destroy a house Saturday as she drove home from Ward’s Restaurant.
The twister touched down briefly, traveled over Highway 49 and then went back up before making another quick descent, she said.
“I was crying. My legs were shaking. It was pretty scary,” she said.
In Arkansas, officials confirmed three deaths.
Wildfires and dust storms drive up the death toll
Wind-driven wildfires caused extensive damage in Texas and Oklahoma and officials warned Sunday that parts of both states would again face an increased risk of fire danger in the coming week.
More than 130 fires were reported across Oklahoma and nearly 300 homes were damaged or destroyed, Gov. Kevin Stitt said.
“Nobody has enough resources to fight fires when the wind is blowing 70 mph,” said Terry Essary, the fire chief of Stillwater, Oklahoma. “It’s an insurmountable task.”
Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management spokesperson Keli Cain said Sunday that two people were killed as a result of the wildfires and weather.
Meanwhile, dust storms spurred by high winds claimed almost a dozen lives on Friday. Eight people died in a Kansas highway pileup involving at least 50 vehicles, according to the state highway patrol. Authorities said three people also were killed in car crashes during a dust storm in Amarillo, in the Texas Panhandle.
PIEDMONT, Mo. (AP) — Violent tornadoes and high winds decimated homes, wiped out schools and toppled semitractor-trailers as a monster storm that killed at least 32 people ripped its way across the central and southern U.S.
Missouri resident Dakota Henderson said he and others rescuing trapped neighbors found five bodies scattered in the debris Friday night outside what remained of his aunt’s house in hard-hit Wayne County. Scattered twisters killed at least a dozen people in the state, authorities said.
“It was a very rough deal last night,” Henderson said Saturday not far from the splintered home from which he said they rescued his aunt through a window of the only room left standing. “It’s really disturbing for what happened to the people, the casualties last night.”
Coroner Jim Akers of nearby Butler County described the “unrecognizable home” where one man was killed as “just a debris field.”
“The floor was upside down,” he said. “We were walking on walls.”
Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves announced six people died in three counties and three more people were missing late Saturday as storms moved further east into Alabama, where damaged homes and impassable roads were reported. Officials confirmed three deaths in Arkansas, where Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders declared a state of emergency.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp also declared an emergency in anticipation of the storm’s shift eastward. Early Sunday morning, the Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency used its social media accounts to repost a National Weather Service tornado watch for parts of southeast Georgia.
In response to the watch, which warns of isolated tornadoes and hail and gusts of 50 to 70 mph (80 to 112 kph), Kemp posted a note saying his family was “praying for all those impacted by this storm system and those still in its path.”
“We will continue to work closely with state and local officials to respond to damage and assess any needs following this weather event,” Kemp wrote.
Dust storms spurred by the system’s early high winds claimed almost a dozen lives on Friday. Eight people died in a Kansas highway pileup involving at least 50 vehicles, according to the state highway patrol. Authorities said three people also were killed in car crashes during a dust storm in Amarillo, in the Texas Panhandle.
Extreme weather encompasses a zone of 100 million people
The extreme weather conditions were forecast to impact an area that is home to more than 100 million people, with winds threatening blizzard conditions in colder northern areas and fanning the wildfire risk in warmer, drier places to the south.
Evacuations were ordered in some Oklahoma communities as more than 130 fires were reported across the state and nearly 300 homes were damaged or destroyed. Gov. Kevin Stitt said at a Saturday news conference that some 266 square miles (689 square kilometers) had burned, sharing that he lost a home of his own on a ranch northeast of Oklahoma City.
To the north, the National Weather Service issued blizzard warnings for parts of far western Minnesota and far eastern South Dakota starting early Saturday. Snow accumulations of 3 to 6 inches (7.6 to 15.2 centimeters) were expected, with up to a foot (30 centimeters) possible. Winds were expected to cause whiteout conditions.
Still, experts said it’s not unusual to see such weather extremes in March.
Tornadoes have been widespread
Significant tornadoes continued late Saturday, with the region at highest risk stretching from eastern Louisiana and Mississippi through Alabama, western Georgia and the Florida panhandle, the Storm Prediction Center said.
Bailey Dillon, 24, and her fiance, Caleb Barnes, watched from their front porch in Tylertown, Mississippi, as a massive twister struck an area about half a mile (0.8 kilometer) away near Paradise Ranch RV Park.
They drove over afterward to see if anyone needed help and recorded video of snapped trees, leveled buildings and overturned vehicles.
“The amount of damage was catastrophic,” Dillon said. “It was a large amount of cabins, RVs, campers that were just flipped over. Everything was destroyed.”
Paradise Ranch said via Facebook that all staff and guests were safe and accounted for, but Dillon said the damage extended beyond the RV park itself.
“Homes and everything were destroyed all around it,” she said. “Schools and buildings are just completely gone.”
Some images from the extreme weather went viral online.
Tad Peters and his father, Richard Peters, had pulled over to fuel up their pickup truck in Rolla, Missouri, on Friday night when they heard tornado sirens and saw other motorists fleeing the interstate to park.
“Whoa, is this coming? Oh, it’s here. It’s here,” Tad Peters can be heard saying on a video. “Look at all that debris. Ohhh. My God, we are in a torn …”
His father then rolled up the window.
The two were headed to Indiana for a weightlifting competition but decided to return home to Norman, Oklahoma, about six hours away, where they then encountered wildfire.
CROCKETT – A man who allegedly impersonated a federal agent and then shot around 30 bullets from an AR-15 outside of the Houston County Sheriff’s Office was arrested on Saturday. According to our news partner KETK, 34-year-old Clifford Heniser, of Lovelady, come into the sherriff’s office that morning around 7 a.m. claiming to be a federal agent and wanting to inspect their record. The dispatcher Heniser was speaking with, told him that a deputy was on the way as all other deputies were on patrol at that time.
Heniser then allegedly left the lobby and retrieved an AR-15 style rifle from his vehicle. Officials said he went back into the lobby to talk to dispatchers but all the dispatchers were taking cover and calling for help. According to the sheriff’s office, Heniser had reloaded and walked around the parking lot by the time that two Crockett police officers and a Texas DPS trooper arrived to confront him.
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GLADEWATER – The Gladewater Fire Department responded to Lake Gladewater on Friday to help retrieve an SUV that fell into the water. According to our news partner KETK, an emergency call came in about an SUV in Lake Gladewater on that afternoon and when firefighters arrived on the scene they found the vehicle partly submerged in the lake near a boat ramp.
Firefighters with Gladewater Fire Department were able to contain the SUV’s fuel which was leaking into the lake. They also had to deploy their boat in order clean up parts which floated away from the vehicle. The vehicle itself was eventually removed from Lake Gladewater with the assistance of a backhoe and a tow truck.
(AP) — Violent tornadoes ripped through parts of the U.S., wiping out schools and toppling semitractor-trailers in several states, part of a monster storm that has killed at least 26 people as more severe weather was expected late Saturday.
The number of fatalities increased after the Kansas Highway Patrol reported eight people died in a highway pileup caused by a dust storm in Sherman County Friday. At least 50 vehicles were involved.
Missouri recorded more fatalities than any other state as it withstood scattered twisters overnight that killed at least 12 people, authorities said. The deaths included a man who was killed after a tornado ripped apart his home.
“It was unrecognizable as a home. Just a debris field,” said Coroner Jim Akers of Butler County, describing the scene that confronted rescuers. “The floor was upside down. We were walking on walls.”
Dakota Henderson said he and others rescuing people trapped in their homes Friday night found five dead bodies scattered in the debris outside what remained of his aunt’s house in hard-hit Wayne County, Missouri.
“It was a very rough deal last night,” he said Saturday, surrounded by uprooted trees and splintered homes. “It’s really disturbing for what happened to the people, the casualties last night.”
Henderson said they rescued his aunt from a bedroom that was the only room left standing in her house, taking her out through a window. They also carried out a man who had a broken arm and leg.
Officials in Arkansas said three people died in Independence County and 29 others were injured across eight counties as storms passed through the state.
“We have teams out surveying the damage from last night’s tornadoes and have first responders on the ground to assist,” Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders said on X.
She and Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp declared states of emergency. Kemp said he was making the declaration in anticipation of severe weather moving in later Saturday.
On Friday, meanwhile, authorities said three people were killed in car crashes during a dust storm in Amarillo in the Texas Panhandle.
Extreme weather encompasses a zone of 100 million people
The deaths came as a massive storm system moving across the country unleashed winds that triggered deadly dust storms and fanned more than 100 wildfires.
Extreme weather conditions were forecast to affect an area home to more than 100 million people. Winds gusting up to 80 mph (130 kph) were predicted from the Canadian border to Texas, threatening blizzard conditions in colder northern areas and wildfire risk in warmer, drier places to the south.
The National Weather Service issued blizzard warnings for parts of far western Minnesota and far eastern South Dakota starting early Saturday. Snow accumulations of 3 to 6 inches (7.6 to 15.2 centimeters) were expected, with up to a foot (30 centimeters) possible.
Winds gusting to 60 mph (97 kph) were expected to cause whiteout conditions.
Evacuations were ordered in some Oklahoma communities as more than 130 fires were reported across the state. Nearly 300 homes were damaged or destroyed. Gov. Kevin Stitt said at a Saturday news conference that some 266 square miles (689 square kilometers) had burned in his state.
The State Patrol said winds were so strong that they toppled several tractor-trailers.
Experts said it’s not unusual to see such weather extremes in March.
Tornadoes hit amid storm outbreak
The Storm Prediction Center said fast-moving storms could spawn twisters and hail as large as baseballs on Saturday, but the greatest threat would come from winds near or exceeding hurricane force, with gusts of 100 mph (160 kph) possible.
Significant tornadoes continued to hit Saturday. The regions at highest risk stretch from eastern Louisiana and Mississippi through Alabama, western Georgia and the Florida panhandle, the center said.
Bailey Dillon, 24, and her fiance, Caleb Barnes, watched a massive tornado from their front porch in Tylertown, Mississippi, about half a mile (0.8 km) away as it struck an area near Paradise Ranch RV Park.
They drove over afterward to see if anyone needed help and recorded a video depicting snapped trees, leveled buildings and overturned vehicles.
“The amount of damage was catastrophic,” Dillon said. “It was a large amount of cabins, RVs, campers that were just flipped over — everything was destroyed.”
Paradise Ranch reported on Facebook that all its staff and guests were safe and accounted for, but Dillon said the damage extended beyond the ranch itself.
“Homes and everything were destroyed all around it,” she said. “Schools and buildings are just completely gone.”
Some of the imagery from the extreme weather has gone viral.
Tad Peters and his dad, Richard Peters, had pulled over to fuel up their pickup truck in Rolla, Missouri, Friday night when they heard tornado sirens and saw other motorists flee the interstate to park.
“Whoa, is this coming? Oh, it’s here. It’s here,” Tad Peters can be heard saying on a video. “Look at all that debris. Ohhh. My God, we are in a torn …”
His father then rolled up the truck window. The two were headed to Indiana for a weightlifting competition but decided to turn around and head back home to Norman, Oklahoma, about six hours away, where they encountered wildfires.
Wildfires elsewhere in the Southern Plains threatened to spread rapidly amid warm, dry weather and strong winds in Texas, Kansas, Missouri and New Mexico.
A blaze in Roberts County, Texas, northeast of Amarillo, quickly blew up from less than a square mile (about 2 square kilometers) to an estimated 32.8 square miles (85 square kilometers), the Texas A&M University Forest Service said on X. Crews stopped its advance by Friday evening.
About 60 miles (90 kilometers) to the south, another fire grew to about 3.9 square miles (10 square kilometers) before its advance was halted in the afternoon.
High winds also knocked out power to more than 200,000 homes and businesses in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana and Michigan, according the website poweroutage.us.
MARSHALL – A Marshall man has been arrested following an altercation that resulted in a woman being struck by his car. Taken into custody is 34-year-old Brandon Carey. MPD said they received a call early Saturday morning about a female been run over by a vehicle near the intersection of University Avenue and Wiley Avenue.
When officers arrived, they found 2018 Dodger Charger on the curb, a female partially underneath it and Brandon Carey identified as its driver. Detectives investigating revealed that Carey and the female had been involved in a physical altercation at a party. The pair left together in Carey’s vehicle. After stopping on University Avenue near Wiley Avenue, the situation escalated, resulting in the female being struck by the vehicle. The female was transported to a local medical center for treatment. Her injuries are not believed to be life-threatening.
Brandon Carey was arrested and charged with Aggravated Assault, as well as Abandoning and Endangering a Child, after leaving three children home alone to pick up the female. He was booked into the Harrison County Jail, where he remains. The investigation is continuing by Marshall Police.
TYLER – The Tyler Police Department is currently working a traffic flow at the intersection of Paluxy Dr and ESE Loop 323 in Tyler, Smith County, Texas. A power pole, transformer and electrical lines have fallen across the roadway, blocking Paluxy on the south side of the intersection. As a result, northbound and southbound traffic is being diverted. Oncor has responded to the scene and estimates a minimum repair time of 8 hours. Motorists are urged to use alternate routes and exercise caution in the area.
AUSTIN (AP) — A Texas lawmaker who helped pioneer the state’s restrictive abortion laws introduced a bill on Friday to clarify medical exceptions allowed under the law, representing a pivot from Republican legislators who have defended the state’s abortion ban in the face of lawsuits and medical scrutiny.
The bill, introduced by Republican state Sen. Bryan Hughes, still requires that patients have a medical emergency for a physician to perform an abortion but strikes language that it be a life-threatening condition. The bill would also require doctors and lawyers to receive training about the law.
“We’ve learned in a number of cases where the physician was willing to treat the mom, but the lawyers for the hospital would advise against it,” Hughes said. “So one of the most important things we want to do is make sure that doctors and the hospital lawyers are trained on what the law is.”
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AUSTIN (AP) — A Texas lawmaker who helped pioneer the state’s restrictive abortion laws introduced a bill on Friday to clarify medical exceptions allowed under the law, representing a pivot from Republican legislators who have defended the state’s abortion ban in the face of lawsuits and medical scrutiny.
The bill, introduced by Republican state Sen. Bryan Hughes, still requires that patients have a medical emergency for a physician to perform an abortion but strikes language that it be a life-threatening condition. The bill would also require doctors and lawyers to receive training about the law.
“We’ve learned in a number of cases where the physician was willing to treat the mom, but the lawyers for the hospital would advise against it,” Hughes said. “So one of the most important things we want to do is make sure that doctors and the hospital lawyers are trained on what the law is.”
Hughes’ proposed legislation follows similar efforts by Kentucky lawmakers who added medical exceptions to their state’s near-total abortion ban on Thursday.
Texas law currently prohibits abortions except when a pregnant patient has a life-threatening condition. Doctors who are convicted of providing an illegal abortion can face up to 99 years in prison, a $100,000 fine and lose their medical license.
Texas’ abortion laws are among the strictest in the nation and have survived multiple legal challenges since the overturning of Roe v. Wade from opponents who say the law is unclear about when medical exceptions are allowed.
Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, the president of the Senate, has made the bill one of his legislative priorities, and Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s office said he’s open to supporting the legislation.
“Since the Dobbs decision, there have been 135 medically necessary abortions to save mothers’ lives in Texas with no repercussions for those physicians,” Abbott spokesperson Andrew Mahaleris said in a statement. “Governor Abbott looks forward to seeing any clarifying language in any proposed legislation from the legislature.”
For years, abortion rights advocates have criticized Texas’ abortion laws, which do not allow exceptions for cases of incest or rape, as too restrictive.
“No amount of attempted clarification from Texas lawmakers would suffice because abortion bans are dangerous,” said Ashley Gray, senior policy adviser for the Center for Reproductive Rights. “As long as you’re criminalizing doctors for providing care, patients will suffer.”
In 2024, the Texas Supreme Court said the state’s abortion laws were not too vague, ruling against a group of women who had serious pregnancy complications and were denied abortions. The Texas Medical Board has refused to list specific exceptions for doctors under the law.
Dallas mother Kate Cox was at the center of a separate lawsuit brought in 2023 for a similar issue after a court denied her permission to obtain an abortion after her fetus developed a fatal condition.
A group of more than 100 obstetricians and gynecologists across the state sent a letter in November to state officials urging them to reform the law after an investigation by ProPublica found three women had died after doctors had delayed treating their miscarriages.