The Texas Policy Evaluation Project (TxPEP) is a multidisciplinary group of researchers who evaluate the effects of legislation and policies in Texas related to reproductive health. Our team includes academic faculty, clinicians, doctorate- and masters-level graduate students, undergraduate research assistants, community advocates, and research staff from across a range of disciplines, including Social Work, Sociology, Economics, and Public Health. For the last 10 years, our team has conducted high-impact quantitative and qualitative research that illustrates how these policies affect people’s lives and abilities to access care, particularly Latinx, Black, and low-income communities.
Throughout the project’s tenure, we have disseminated our findings to help inform evidence-based programs and policies that promote more equitable reproductive healthcare for all Texans.
During the next two years, we will be conducting several research activities that are informed by the current priorities of community organizations and other stakeholders, and our activities will be conducted in partnership with them. These include:
· A project to explore attitudes and norms surrounding contraception and abortion and the perceived availability and quality of services in Texas’ border communities
· An assessment of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on Texas family planning providers’ ability to deliver reproductive health services
· A study to assess clinicians’ barriers and facilitators providing evidence-based care for pregnant people who develop serious health conditions or fetal abnormalities and these medically complex patients’ experiences navigating the healthcare system to obtain timely, patient-centered services
To learn more about our research and opportunities to get involved, visit https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/txpep/