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House Republicans approved a bill late Wednesday that would restrict minors seeking a legal bypass to get an abortion without parental consent. The measure, approved on a 98-47 vote after four hours of debate, now goes to the Senate. Women under 18 years old are required to get parental consent to have an abortion in Texas, but those with absent parents or who may be abused or neglected can ask a judge to waive the requirement. The bill by Rep. Geanie Morrison, R-Victoria, would limit where a girl can apply, extend the time judges have to rule and raise the standard of evidence the minor has to produce to convince a judge she needs a bypass. (Martin, 5/13)

More than half of Texas women faced at least one barrier to accessing reproductive health care in the years after lawmakers dramatically altered the state’s family planning services, according to a new report by the Texas Policy Evaluation Project. The project's researchers, who are based at the University of Texas at Austin, focused on access to reproductive services — including family planning, cervical cancer screenings and contraception — starting in 2011. That's the year the Republican-led Legislature cut the state’s budget for family planning by two-thirds and rejected a federally financed women’s health program in favor of a state-run program. (Ura, 5/12)

Abortion opponents are urging Kansas legislators to rewrite part of a 2011 law that imposed special health and safety regulations on abortion providers, telling state senators Wednesday that the move would eliminate an issue in a lawsuit keeping the rules from being enforced. But an abortion-rights attorney representing father-daughter physicians who perform abortions and filed the suit said making the change would create new legal issues instead. (Hanna, 5/13)

A bill signed by Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam last week requires much stricter abortion clinic standards than before, which may result in many women not being able to get a safe, convenient procedure. No announcement was made by the governor, and there has been very little press about it. However, the president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, Nancy Northup, said in a statement that the restrictions “opened the door for Tennessee politicians to begin demonstrating their hostility to women’s constitutional rights and indifference to their well-being, and now they have marched right through.” (Stecklow, 5/13)