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Women who want an abortion in deeply conservative Texas have slightly more choice these days than they had a few months ago. In March, the Food and Drug Administration simplified rules on abortion medication, allowing patients to take the standard regimen of abortion drugs later in a pregnancy. However, the recent spike in the number of women choosing legal, non-surgical abortions in U.S. clinics has not slowed brisk sales of abortion drugs south of the border, in Mexican pharmacies. (Burnett, 6/8)

When Texas abruptly ended its $600,000 HIV prevention contract with Planned Parenthood’s Houston affiliate in late December, state health officials promised that there would be no interruption in services. The Department of State Health Services parceled the money out to three county health departments in the Houston area and insisted at the time that the counties would have the capacity to pick up where Planned Parenthood left off. But the Observer has learned that as of early June, Harris County’s health department has yet to perform a single HIV test with the money. (Garcia-Ditta, 6/8)

This month, the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule in the first landmark abortion case in decades, Whole Woman’s Health vs. Hellerstedt. The ruling could have an immediate effect not only in Texas, but in more than half a dozen other states that have recently passed laws restricting access to abortion clinics. (Hennessy-Fiske, 6/9)