State Legislature

The 140-day state legislative session ended on June 1, 2009. Here's a wrap-up of the the issues that were top priorities for Texas Alliance for Life.

Gov. Rick Perry may call a special session to consider issues not passed. Stay tuned to our site for further updates.

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CHOOSE LIFE LICENSE PLATE TO PROMOTE INFANT ADOPTION

Despite overwhelming support in both chambers, the Choose Life license plate bill died on the last day along with the TxDOT reauthorization bill to which it had been amended. The Choose Life bill was amended onto this bill in both the House and Senate because our stand-alone bills, SB 1098 by Sen. John Carona (R-Dallas) and HB 109 Rep. Larry Phillips (R-Sherman), had been bottled up in the House Transportation Committee by an unfriendly committee chairman.

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ADULT STEM CELL RESEARCH CONSORTIUM

Despite an excellent bill passed unanimously by the Senate, time ran out in the House on SB 73, authored by Sen. Jane Nelson (R-Lewisville). This bill promoted research and treatments using adult, not embryonic, stem cells by creating the Texas Adult Stem Cell Consortium.

The good news is that Sen. Nelson has already pledged to us that she will make passing this bill to promote adult, not embryonic, stem cell research a priority during the next session. Also, a bright spot at the end of this session is that the state's budget bill, SB 1, continues to appropriate $5 million for research and treatments involving adult stem cells obtained from umbilical cord blood. Another success is that we helped to defeat all attempts to fund or promote human cloning and embryonic stem cell research in law or in the budget.

See four short videos featuring Texans successfully treated in Texas with adult stem cells. There are no treatments available using embryonic stem cells.

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ULTRASOUND BILL FOR INFORMED CONSENT FOR ABORTION

SB 182, known as the Ultrasound Bill, requires an abortion doctor to make available the ultrasound image of the unborn child and the sound of the child's heartbeat to a woman so she can have voluntary and informed consent before an abortion.

This bill, authored by Sen. Dan Patrick (R-Houston) and sponsored by Rep. Frank Corte (R-San Antonio) in the House, was passed by the Senate on May 1, but was a victim of five days of stalling by some members of the House Democratic Caucus over other issues. Though scheduled for a vote last Tuesday, the House never got anywhere close to voting on it.

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DE-FUNDING PLANNED PARENTHOOD

Planned Parenthood operates the largest chain of abortion facilities in Texas, including four in San Antonio that were recently cited for illegally providing abortions in unlicensed facilities (read more). They receive $10-20 million annually from the state for a narrow range of "family planning" services. While using that funding for providing abortions would be illegal under federal and state law, they do use these funds to promote abortion as a method of birth control, including for minors without parental consent.

Texas Alliance for Life is working to de-fund Planned Parenthood to the greatest extent possible and shift the funds to agencies that provide comprehensive primary care to women and families, community health care providers who do provide or agressively promote abortion.

While we were unsuccessful in our attempts to de-fund Planned Parenthood this session, we learned a great deal about the inferior care that ths organization provides to women and families compared to other organizations that provide comprehensive primary care. We will be building on that for the next 18 months until the 2011 session.

PROMOTING COMPASSIONATE ALTERNATIVES TO ABORTION

We are happy to announce that the Alternatives to Abortion fund in SB 1, the General Appropriations Act, was raised from $5 million to $8 million for the next two years.

The program, administered by the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, provides grants to social service organizations that assist pregnant women considering childbirth instead of abortion.

LIMITS ON FREE SPEECH

Texas Alliance for Life helped to defeat HB 2511, a very dangerous bill to limit the ability of churches and non-profit organization to freely talk about how candidates stand on issues important to them.

HB 2511 would have amended the state election code for state and local elections. Under this bill by Rep. Todd Smith (R-Euless), a newsletter from a church or nonprofit organization could have been severely restricted from educating the public about elected officials and candidates. HB 2511 would have significantly changed Texas law so that communications that are currently legal would be criminalized. A church or organization would not have known ahead of time whether their communication would go afoul of this vague law.

For example, a newsletter or bulletin reporting on candidates' stands on issue important to the congregation or to the public could have been a violation of this law, even if the newsletter or bulletin did not advocate for the election or defeat of any candidate. A violation of HB 2511 could have subjected the church or organization to criminal prosecution and civil lawsuits.

Texas Alliance for Life joined other groups in signing a letter to House members.