The Texas House Subcommittee on Maternal Health, Menopause, and Access to Evidence-Based Medicine will gavel in at 10 a.m. Sept. 15 in Capitol Extension room E2.030 for its first hearing, taking invited testimony only on two interim charges: whether iron and other essential supplements should reach more pregnant Texans, and whether the Healthy Texas Women program is working. The public cannot testify, but Texas residents may file electronic comments on both topics through the House comment portal until the hearing adjourns, according to the hearing notice.
Rep. Katrina Pierson, R–Rockwall, chairs the three-member panel — two Republicans and one Democrat, Rep. Liz Campos of San Antonio, who is also vice chair of the parent committee. The subcommittee is new. Public Health Chairman Gary VanDeaver, R–New Boston, created it on Aug. 20 at Speaker Dustin Burrows’ request, alongside a set of supplemental interim charges on women’s health that Burrows issued Aug. 12 and referred to the House Committee on Public Health. No vice chair has been named. It is the second subcommittee under Public Health, which already has a standing panel on disease prevention and women’s and children’s health.
The prenatal supplements charge asks members to evaluate the benefits of iron and other essential supplements for pregnant women, then identify methods to expand access to supplementation, related testing and prenatal nutrition. Pierson has already sketched what she would do with the answer. In a 12-part women’s health package she released Aug. 12, she proposed broadening pharmacy standing orders to cover iron and other supplements — with prenatal vitamins, folic acid, postpartum iron and Rh testing follow-up named for consideration — and pursuing a U.S. Department of Agriculture waiver to let SNAP dollars buy iron supplements, paired with a prenatal nutrition pilot through approved providers, as the Dispatch reported. None of it carries a bill number yet.
The Healthy Texas Women charge is the broader of the two. It directs members to evaluate the effectiveness of the program and related women’s health programs and to identify ways to enhance services for eligible Texans. Healthy Texas Women provides women’s health and family planning services at no cost to low-income women ages 15 through 44 and operates under a Section 1115 demonstration waiver; its HTW Plus component adds a limited postpartum package for enrollees who have been pregnant within the past 12 months. The Health and Human Services Commission reports enrollment, utilization and cost figures for the program annually, most recently in its Texas Women’s Health Programs Report for fiscal 2024.
The program’s caseload has been shifting under it. House Bill 12, enacted by the 88th Legislature, extended Medicaid and CHIP postpartum coverage from two months to 12, and the change took effect March 1, 2024, Gov. Greg Abbott’s office announced. Women who had previously moved to Healthy Texas Women once their Medicaid pregnancy coverage ended were moved back to full Medicaid or CHIP for the balance of the year. Judging what the program accomplishes now means judging it against a materially different population than the one it served three years ago.
Members will do that work without the state’s newest maternal mortality findings. The Department of State Health Services pushed the release of the 2026 Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Review Committee report from Sept. 1 to Dec. 1, saying the acting commissioner had asked the committee to strengthen its treatment of preventability and the sourcing of its recommendations, KXAN reported. The biennial report is the state’s primary account of why Texas women die during and after pregnancy.
The hearing continues a stretch of activity on the Public Health Committee. The full committee met Aug. 20 on infant mortality, social media and emerging disease threats, which the Dispatch previewed and recapped.
Because this is an interim hearing, the subcommittee will take no votes and no legislation is before it. What members hear will shape the panel’s findings and the women’s health bills filed for the 90th Legislature, which convenes in January 2027.
Meeting at a glance
- When
- 10:00 AM CT, Tuesday, September 15, 2026
- Where
- Room E2.030, Capitol Extension, Austin
- Chair
- Rep. Katrina Pierson, R–Rockwall (HD-33)
- Vice Chair
- None designated
- Format
- Invited testimony only — no public testimony; no per-witness time limit stated in the notice; no written-copy requirement stated; electronic comments accepted until adjournment on both listed topics; interim charges only — no vote on legislation
- Live video
- house.texas.gov/video-audio
- Submit comments online
- comments.house.texas.gov/home?c=c413 (until adjournment)
- Full agenda
- Official hearing notice (capitol.texas.gov)
Committee members
- Rep. Katrina Pierson, R–Rockwall (HD-33) — Chair
- Rep. Liz Campos, D–San Antonio (HD-119)
- Rep. Joanne W. Shofner, R–Nacogdoches (HD-11)