Planned Parenthood funding further excluded
Texas Insider Report: AUSTIN Texas Were extremely
grateful to Speaker Joe Straus and his leadership team
as well as Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and the Senate for passing these bills We have
had a truly sensational session said Joe Pojman (right) executive director of
the Texas Alliance for Life. The Texas
Legislature concluded its 84th Regular Session in Austin earlier this week but not before
it passed five substantial pro-life bills as well as multiple
pro-life provisions in the budget.
The first bill of significance the Legislature passed was
HB 3994 by Rep. Geanie Morrison (R-Victoria) and Sen. Charles Perry (R-Lubbock) -- a pro-life bill to reform the judicial bypass process in Texas law that allows a judge to authorize abortions on minor girls without notification or consent of parents.
HB 3994 closes several loopholes in the current judicial bypass process. The Senate vote was 21-10 and the House vote was 102-43.
Second the Legislature passed
HB 3074 by Rep. Drew Springer (R-Muenster) and Sen. Charles Schwertner (right R-Georgetown) to give patients at the end of life the right to food and water if requested.
Supported by a large coalition of pro-life and disability rights organizations HB 3074 passed unanimously in both chambers.
Third the Texas Legislature passed
HB 416 by Rep. Debbie Riddle (R-Spring) and Sen. Donna Campbell (R-New Braunfels) to require training for abortion facility workers and volunteers to identify and assist victims of human sex trafficking. This bill passed the House unanimously and passed the Senate on a 24-7 vote.
Fourth the Legislature also passed
HB 3374 by Rep. Morrison and Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr. (D-Brownsville) to require physicians to offer state-provided educational materials to parents of an unborn child newly diagnosed with Down syndrome. An amendment by Rep. Brooks Landgraf (R-Odessa) assures that the state materials do not advocate for abortion.
A fifth pro-life bill is HB 177 by Bill Zedler (R-Arlington) and
Sen. Paul Bettencourt (R-Houston) to create the Texas Adult Stem Cell Research Consortium. This bill promotes life-saving treatments using adult stem cells rather than embryonic stem cells which require the destruction of human embryos said
Joe 
Pojman executive director of the Texas Alliance for Life.
Amendments to
HB 1295 by Rep. Phil King (at left R-Weatherford) and
Sen. Kelly Hancock (R-North Richland Hills) require researchers at public universities to reveal their funding sources. The Texas Policy Evaluation Project (TPEP) at the University of Texas at Austin whose activities and publications are overtly hostile to pro-life policies passed in recent years by the Legislature has raised concerns because it hides its funding sources from the public.
Finally the General Appropriations Act
HB 1 by Rep. John Otto (R-Dayton) and S
en. Jane Nelson (R-Flower Mound) includes multiple pro-life provisions in the budgets for the Department of Health and Human Services (DSHS) and the Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC):
- HB 1 increases funding for alternatives to abortion from $5.15 to $9.15 million per year.
- HB 1 continues funding $2.5 million per year for adult stem cell research at the University of Texas Heart Institute.
- DSHS Rider 72 excludes Planned Parenthood from the Breast and Cervical Cancer Services
program. Planned Parenthood currently receives $1.4 million per year.
- DSHS Rider 53 by Reps. Four Price (R-Amarillo) and Molly White (R-Belton) limits funding for abstinence sexual education only to contractors that comply with each of the federal A-H components of abstinence education and requires an annual report for the Legislature on contractor compliance.
- DSHS Rider 63 and HHSC Riders 29 74 85 87 and 88 continue to exclude Planned Parenthood from womens health programs.
- HHSC Rider 31 by Rep. Jeff Leach (at right R-Plano) bans Medicaid funding to abortion providers and their affiliates for human sexuality education.
- DSHS Rider 14 and HHSC Rider 8 continue to require contractors to report suspected child abuse including statutory rape.
- HHSC Rider 31 and 86 continue to prohibit dispensing prescription drugs such as birth control drugs and devices without parental consent.
- HHSC Rider 59 appropriates $1 million per year for banking adult stem cells obtained from umbilical cord blood.
Noteworthy members of the Speakers leadership team include Representatives:
Byron Cook (R-Corsicana)
