Tougher abortion law is sought

GOP legislators target exception for fetuses with severe defects

AUSTIN — One legislative session after approving a sweeping law that closed more than half of the abortion clinics in Texas, Republicans made clear Thursday they intend to go even further this time.

Unexpectedly taking over discussion of a noncontroversial bill, conservative lawmakers successfully inserted language to end an exception to the state’s ban on abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy that has allowed the procedure if a fetus has been found to have a severe abnormality.

The proposed change was particularly noteworthy because those conditions often cannot be detected until later.

The move was ultimately undone, at least temporarily, by a technical maneuver from minority Democrats after hours of heated debate. But the message was clear.

“Every chance I get to protect life, I’m going to take it,” state Rep. Matt Schaefer said after engineering the effort, which he said he took when he failed to get a committee hearing on the proposal

and another bill to increase reporting requirements for abortion facilities.

In general, committees in the Texas Legislature have not heard many abortion-related measures this year, with lawmakers seemingly waiting to see the results of the 2013 bill, which was considered one of the most restrictive in the country.

The law, known as House Bill 2, established the ban on abortions after 20 weeks, in addition to requiring facilities to meet the expensive standards of ambulatory surgical centers and mandating that abortion doctors obtain admitting privileges at a nearby hospital.

The constitutionality of the law is still in question; a New Orleans-based federal appeals court is expected to issue a decision any day.

The biggest abortionrelated proposal at the Capitol this session has been an attempt to tighten the process by which minors can go to court to get approval to get an abortion without parental permission. The measure had sparked some protest, but left abortion getting less attention than fiscal issues, border security and even state contracting policies.

Until Thursday.

Heated debate

The fireworks arrived during an afternoon discussion of House Bill 2510, a noncontroversial bill to fix structural issues and inefficiencies at the Department of State Health Services.

Schaefer, R-Tyler, had said he would bring up the abortion-related amendments, but they had not been expected to get far because the bill sponsor, Republican Rep. Four Price of Amarillo, had said he would not support any amendments not directly related to the contents of the bill — “regardless of my personal beliefs.”

Typically, the tradition-cognizant state House goes along with a sponsor’s desire to reject amendments, especially when he is a top lieutenant of the speaker, as Price is.

Surprisingly, however, the chamber voted against an attempt by Price to kill the amendments, prompting a heated debate.

In pushing his amendment, Schaefer acknowledged it can be painful for parents and babies after a pregnancy results in a child with a severe abnormality. But pain, he said, “is part of the human condition, since sin entered the world.”

“We should value what God values, and that’s the life of the unborn,” Schaefer said.

‘Heart-rending’

Rep. Eddie Lucio III, D-Harlingen, called the proposal “ugly,” saying it would subject parents who have already been through trauma to even more.

Republican J.D. Sheffield, a Gatesville doctor, joined with Democrats.

“When parents have to make a decision about whether their child will have a life or a life of suffering, why should the heavy, blunt hand of government come into that most heart-rending decision?” he asked.

The amendment was approved 83-46.

Schaefer’s other amendment also passed overwhelmingly. It would make abortion facilities report to the state monthly, instead of annually, and electronically, instead of using paper forms.

It would also require the clinics to designate a person responsible for reporting — a needed provision because some have not been submitting reports, he said.

But state Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, a San Antonio Democrat who prides himself on using technical moves to derail conservative legislation, quickly raised a point of order related to an error with the drafting of the analysis of the bill. The maneuver set off an hour of arguing at the front of the chamber.

Finally, faced with evidence that the bill analysis was wrong, Price said he was sending the proposal back to committee to be fixed. That wiped the bill clear of amendments, at least for now.

Following rules

In an interview afterward, Martinez Fischer would not say if he had purposely tried to derail the abortion amendments. He was just making sure the House follows its rules, he said with a hint of a smile.

Schaefer said he would bring back the amendments through “any vehicle there is.”

Based on the number of anti-abortion House members, he said, he is hopeful they eventually will pass.