AAN Association of Alternative Newsmedia

Austin Chronicle's Jordan Smith to Receive Maggie Award

june 12, 2012 02:00 pm

Austin Chronicle staff writer Jordan Smith has been selected to receive the 2012 Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) Maggie Award. This award, in the category of Daily/Weekly Print Reporting, is to honor Smith's Austin Chronicle piece "The Destruction of Texas Health Care," which educates readers on how gutting the family planning budget and dismantling the Women's Health Program hurts all Texans.

Named after Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger, the PPFA Maggie Awards recognize exceptional achievement in media coverage of reproductive rights and health care issues through news coverage, editorials, and commentary.

"I am once again honored to have our work recognized by the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. As access to women's health care in Texas continues to be threatened by a political dislike of Planned Parenthood by certain lawmakers, it becomes even more important to report and write about the impact on women that these decisions have," states Maggie Award recipient Jordan Smith.

Austin Chronicle Politics Editor Michael King elaborates: "We are delighted and honored to learn that Chronicle writer Jordan Smith's incisive reporting on health care in Texas – and the deleterious effects of political decisions on the lives of women and their families – has once again been recognized for excellence by the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. The state of Texas has unfortunately created a national template for using hypocritical 'pro-life' rhetoric as a means of slashing funding for basic health care – thereby undermining the health of women and their children, increasing the number of unplanned births and conceptions, and paradoxically increasing the number of abortions. Smith's reporting on this preposterous crusade has been steady and indispensable, and it has brought the consequences to a broad and engaged audience. We thank and celebrate PPFA for recognizing this important work."

Smith hopes to be on-hand to accept her award in Washington, D.C., on July 11 with other Maggie Award recipients.