Texas near bottom in the nation for women’s health care

DALLAS – The Dallas Morning News reports that Texas is the second to worst state in the country to be a woman with health issues, according to new findings from the Commonwealth Fund, a research foundation dedicated to improving health care. In the race to the bottom, the Lone Star state is behind only Mississippi, according to recently released scorecards by the foundation. Mississippi has the highest infant mortality rate in the country. The Commonwealth Fund has been ranking states’ health care coverage since 2006. Since 2020, Texas’s overall ranking on the Commonwealth Fund’s state-by-state scorecard has steadily declined. Last year was the first time the foundation began including women’s health care in its analysis. This year, the foundation went further, producing scorecards specifically ranking women’s health care by state.

“One thing is absolutely clear: Women’s health in the U.S. is in a very fragile state,” said Joseph Betancourt, president of the Commonwealth Fund. Texas ranked last for health care coverage, access and affordability for women in the U.S. The Commonwealth Fund’s focus on women’s health per state arose after the landmark Supreme Court ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization in June 2022, which left the right to abortion up to individual states. “There are stark disparities in women’s access to quality health care amongst states across racial, ethnic and socioeconomic lines,” Betancourt said. “These inequities are long-standing, no doubt, but recent policy choices and judicial decisions restricting access to reproductive care have and may continue to exacerbate this.” Since last year, Texas has moved down a ranking for women’s health, moving to the penultimate slot after New Mexico jumped from last to 41st. Since the Dobbs ruling, women have begun flocking to New Mexico for safe and legal abortion care because the state’s abortion laws are considered among the most permissive in the country.