The Texas Miracle #15: The Woman Who Didn’t Exist

A homeschool runaway's fight for identification, Ken Paxton's latest ethical missteps, and Greg Abbott's back-door abortion limits.

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This week on the Texas Miracle podcast, the Texas Observer’s weekly compendium of everything you need to know, but maybe wish you didn’t, about the Lone Star state, Observer staffer Patrick Michels introduces us to a woman who didn’t exist until she was 20 years old.

Faith Pennington ran away from a conservative Christian family that had kept her even from having a birth certificate, and wound up at the Texas state Capitol, fighting for her ability to, well — be.

Faith Pennington
Faith Pennington  Jen Reel

Then, we’ll head out to the Texas tiki shed for a news roundup with host Andrea Grimes, Dallas Morning News reporter Lauren McGaughy, Texas Monthly‘s Dan Solomon, and Patrick, again, to talk about Attorney General Ken Paxton’s latest ethical troubles — this is becoming a recurring segment of its own — and whether organized basketball can help defeat bigotry.

And on this week’s Ask A Texan segment, we’ll ask NARAL Pro-Choice Texas lobbyist Blake Rocap about how Governor Greg Abbott — not one to give up after that crushing Supreme Court defeat back in June — is sneaking new abortion restrictions in through the back door.

[Editor’s note: There is adult language in this podcast! You can find the Texas Miracle on iTunes and Stitcher. Follow us at @TheTexasMiracle and here on the website for news and updates. If you want to submit an Ask A Texan question, e-mail us at [email protected] or leave us a voicemail at 512-981-5936!]