Recently, a House panel looked at House Bill 17, a pro-life bill passed in 2023 with our support. Authored by Rep. David Cook from Mansfield and Sen. Joan Huffman from Houston, House Bill 17 expands the reasons that a county prosecutor or district attorney can be removed from office under the definition of official misconduct.
Prosecutors can be removed for refusing to prosecute a class or type of criminal offense, including refusing to enforce pro-life laws that protect unborn babies from abortion. That is huge.
Shortly after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in Travis County, Texas, the District Attorney, Jose Garza, publicly declared that he would not prosecute anyone under the Human Life Protection Act. This law makes performing an abortion a felony offense for everyone except the women on whom the abortion is performed. The district attorneys joined Garza in Dallas, Bexar, Fort Bend, and Nueces Counties.
At the hearing, it was revealed that, in August 2023, just two weeks before House Bill 17 went into effect, Jose Garza quietly changed his policy. He rescinded his non-prosecution policy and issued a new policy – the Travis County District Attorney’s Office no longer refuses to prosecute any class of laws. Rep. Cook was very pleased, citing that the goal of his bill is to change behavior, which has happened in Travis County.
We thank Rep. Cook for his bill and his follow-up work. We consider him a pro-life champion.
Joe Pojman, Ph.D., is the Founder and Executive Director of Texas Alliance for Life.