It began in the fall of 2011 with the purpose of documenting and evaluating the impact of reproductive health legislation passed by the 82nd Texas Legislature.
Those measures included large cuts to state family planning funding programs in the 2012–2013 budget as well as changes in the eligibility of organizations to participate in those programs, and Texas House Bill 15, a law requiring that women undergo a mandatory sonogram at least 24 hours before an abortion.
Their evaluation work continued after the 83rd Texas Legislature in 2013, when the legislature added funding streams for family planning to the 2014–15 budget and passed Texas House Bill 2, an omnibus bill restricting abortion care that was introduced in a special legislative session in summer 2013.
In June 2016, the US Supreme Court struck down the admitting privileges and ASC requirements in HB 2, citing TxPEP research findings in its ruling.
Researchers working on the project are affiliated with multiple institutions, including the University of Texas at Austin Population Research Center, the University of California San Francisco, and Ibis Reproductive Health.
The TxPEP research agenda includes studying the impact of the Supreme Court decision on abortion access in Texas, the effects of Texas House Bill 3994 in restricting judicial bypass for teens seeking abortion care without parental consent, as well as the impact of the new and reorganized state family planning programs and the Medicaid rule change permitting reimbursement for immediate postpartum provision of long-acting reversible contraception.
On November 17, 2015, TxPEP released a study that found that at least 100,000 Texas women between the ages of 18 and 49, and possibly as many as 240,000, had attempted to self-induce abortions at some point in their lives.
[3][4] On March 17, 2016, another study conducted by TxPEP researchers was published in the American Journal of Public Health.
Prevalence and predictors of prenatal and postpartum contraceptive counseling in two Texas cities.
Low‐Income Texas Women's Experiences Accessing Their Desired Contraceptive Method at the First Postpartum Visit.
Women's experiences seeking abortion care shortly after the closure of clinics due to a restrictive law in Texas.
http://doi.org/10.1016/j.contraception.2015.12.017 Gerdts, C., Fuentes, L., Grossman, D., White, K., Keefe-Oates, B., Baum, S., Hopkins, K., Stolp C. W., Potter, J. E. (2016).
The impact of clinic closures on women obtaining abortion services after implementation of a restrictive law in Texas.
Unmet demand for short-acting hormonal and long-acting reversible contraception among community college students in Texas.
Women's experiences seeking publicly funded family planning services in Texas.
Effect of removal of Planned Parenthood from the Texas Women's Health Program.
Counseling and referrals for women with unplanned pregnancies at publicly funded family planning organizations in Texas.
Barriers to Offering Vasectomy at Publicly Funded Family Planning Organizations in Texas.
Does information about abortion safety affect Texas voters' opinions about restrictive laws?
The impact of reproductive health legislation on family planning clinic services in Texas.
Women's knowledge of and support for abortion restrictions in Texas: findings from a statewide representative survey.