Today the House Public Health Committee heard testimony on six bills that would further limit abortion access in Texas or ban it entirely. Check out press release:
State Legislature to spend a full day discussing additional restrictions or bans to women’s health care
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 7, 2021
AUSTIN, Texas – The House Public Health Committee is hearing today testimony on six bills that would make abortion even harder to access or ban it entirely in Texas.
The Texas House hearing comes less than a week after the Texas Senate held a hearing discussing seven anti-abortion bills. The Senate did pass Senate Bill 8, one of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s earmarked priority bills.
“This is the most sweeping and dangerous attack on abortion access in Texas since Roe v. Wade,” said Carisa Lopez, political director for Texas Freedom Network. “We’re seeing politicians trying to overstep into medical decisions that should be kept between a woman and her doctor. When people can make decisions that are best for their lives, families thrive and we build communities where each of us can participate with dignity and equality. The members of the House Public Health Committee should defend the right of Texans to make their own reproductive health care decisions and not approve any of these extreme bills.”
The six bills that will be heard that TFN opposes include:
- HB 1280 – a trigger ban that would prohibit abortion in Texas if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, while also forcing doctors to criminal and civil penalties and disciplinary actions.
- HB 1515 – would ban abortion in the state at six weeks, before many Texans even know they are pregnant.
- HB 2337 – places extensive restrictions on how and when a provider can provide medication abortion.
- HB 2313 – violates the privacy of Texans seeking an abortion by forcing them to reveal their personal medical decisions to unlicensed strangers, like anti-abortion Crisis Pregnancy Centers, who are not their health care providers.
- HB 3218 – coerces women into carrying their pregnancies to term even in cases in which the fetus cannot survive.
- HB 3760 – adds sweeping anti-abortion restrictions and hurdles for both patients and medical professionals.
TFN along with its projects, Just Texas and Texas Rising, submitted official testimony opposing the bills.
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The Texas Freedom Network (tfn.org) is a grassroots organization of religious and community leaders and young Texans building an informed and effective movement for equality and social justice.
