Abortion opponents say bills stymied
State Rep. Matt Schaefer, R-Tyler, speaks at a news conference at the Capitol on Tuesday to pressure House Republican leaders to consider anti-abortion legislation.
Unhappy with the slow pace of abortion-related legislation in the Texas House, 16 conservative Republicans joined Texas Right to Life on Tuesday to try to pressure GOP leaders into action.
“Know this: If pro-life bills don’t reach the House floor, we have no one to blame but Republicans in the Texas House,” said Rep. Matt Schaefer, R-Tyler.
“Unfortunately, session after session, the Texas House of Representatives has not prioritized pro-life bills,” he said “We’ve prioritized the budget, CPS, education, an Uber bill — all things that are important, but none of which are as important as saving the lives of preborn babies.”
Rep. Matt Krause, R-Fort Worth, noted that the House had only nine voting days left to pass House bills, and legislation placed on the final days’ calendars rarely comes up for a vote, particularly if legislators begin delaying tactics to kill late-calendar bills they oppose.
“That’s why you sense the urgency in what we’re doing today,” Krause said.
Schaefer said he and others will ask Gov. Greg Abbott to call a special session if abortion-related regulations are not passed by session’s end on May 29.
While the Senate has passed a number of abortion regulations, “no legislation touching abortion has made its way through the Texas House of Representatives yet,” said Emily Cook, political director for Texas Right to Life.
Abortion opponents will seek to revive stalled priority bills by converting them into amendments that will be proposed for “any and all germane legislation,” Cook said.
In particular, she said, Right to Life’s top priority — dubbed the “dismemberment abortion” ban, which would place limits on second-trimester “dilation and evacuation” abortions — has been given unsatisfactory treatment in the House, where a Senate-passed bill has not yet been referred to a committee to begin action. Another measure, which would ban abortion coverage in private insurance plans as well as plans offered to state employees and participants in the Affordable Care Act, has a House committee hearing Wednesday and must be voted out by Friday to meet House deadlines.
“With 95 Republicans in the Texas House of Repre- sentatives, passing conservative legislation should not be this difficult,” Cook said.
But Joe Pojman, head of the Texas Alliance for Life, which also opposes abortion, said Tuesday that it’s too early to sound the alarm.
The House State Affairs Committee, he said, has already passed significant abortion reforms, including a ban on using fetal tissue from abortions for medical research, stricter reporting of abortion complications and a ban on any state funding for abortion providers.
In addition, abortionrelated bills passed by the Senate have a later deadline for House votes, extending the time for action.
“It’s all very doable,” Pojman said. “I think we’re on task to have another sensational session.”