As the last day of the 2025 Texas Legislature (89th Session) comes to an end today, you and other Texans may have some questions about the status of new faith, family, & freedom laws in the state of Texas. Texas Values has been involved in and following the session closely, with members of the policy team at the Capitol daily, researching, speaking with legislators, and playing a vital role in bills being passed, many of which were passed with bipartisan support.
The Top Legislative Victories of this Session Are:
1. SB 10 by Sen. King/Rep. Noble: Ten Commandments in Public Schools - Requires all public elementary and secondary schools in the state to display a durable poster or framed copy of the Ten Commandments in each classroom, beginning with the 2025–2026 school year. The bill specifies the exact wording of the Ten Commandments to ensure uniformity across schools and allows for privately donated materials. This bill received bipartisan support and is headed to Gov. Abbott desk and Gov. Abbott has already posted on social media that he will sign this new law. The ACLU has already said they will sue but there legal grounds are based on an outdated Supreme Court case, Stone v. Graham (1980) is no longer the controlling case or precedent on this issue because the Kennedy v. Bremerton (2022) overturned the Lemon v. Kurtzman “the Lemon Test” standard and returned to a more respectful and historical analysis on religious Establishment Clause cases.
2. SB 33 by Sen. Campbell/Rep. Noble: No Taxpayer Funds for Abortion Travel & Logistics - SB 33 explicitly bans governmental entities from spending or appropriating public money for the purpose of assisting in the procurement of abortions or providing logistical support for such services. The City of Austin has been providing money to “abortion assistance” organizations for years which fund transportation (out of state), lodging, childcare, and other expenses for women seeking abortions out of state, in an attempt to circumvent current pro-life laws. The City of San Antonio is currently being sued for using tax-payer dollars to traffic women across state lines for abortions. This bill will make sure that life is protected in the state and women aren’t sent to obtain a dangerous procedure that is against the law in Texas.
3. HB 229 by Rep. Troxclair/Sen. Middleton: Women’s Bill of Rights - This common sense bill establishes a legal definition of biological sex in Texas Government Code and mandates that all governmental entities collecting vital statistics or other data related to sex must classify individuals strictly as either "male" or "female" based on biological reproductive capacity. It relates to claims of discrimination where most transgender individuals abuse the law to gain access to women’s spaces. The Women’s Bill of Rights will make sure that women’s sports, private spaces, and opportunities are protected. Save Women’s Sports leaders Riley Gaines and Brooke Slusser strongly supported this bill. This bill received bipartisan support and is headed to Gov. Abbott’s desk and Gov. Abbott has already posted on social media that he will sign this new law.
4. SB 11 by Sen. Middleton/Rep. Spiller: Coach Joe Kennedy/Prayer in Schools Bill - Establishes a period of prayer or reading of the Bible in public schools. The bill allows school districts and open-enrollment charter schools to adopt a policy, by board resolution, that requires every campus to provide students and employees with the opportunity to participate in such a period each school day. Participation is voluntary and the policy must include signed consent forms from employees and students. This legislation is on rock solid constitutional footing being based on the 2022 religious freedom victory from the U.S. Supreme Court in Kennedy v. Bremerton.
5. SB 12 by Sen. Creighton/Rep. Leach: Parents’ Bill of Rights - Focuses on strengthening parental rights in public education by prohibiting public schools from infringing on parents’ rights to direct their child’s moral, religious, and educational upbringing. SB 12 prohibits DEI hiring, training, and instruction. It also prohibits guidance on harmful sexual orientation and gender identity concepts being discussed period in K-12 public schools. This bill would also require schools to ask permission before teaching human sexuality instruction (known as sex-ed opt-in). It would also prohibit LGBT clubs on campus.
6. SB 13 by Sen. Paxton/Rep. Buckley: No Harmful Books or Materials in School Libraries – This bill will prohibit pornographic books in school libraries by creating a streamlined process for selecting and removing library books. This bill is a stronger effort to address sexually explicit books in libraries by having a strong legal standard that should withstand a court challenge. It also gives school districts a clear framework to address this issue.
7. SB 2 by Chair Creighton/Chair Buckley: ESA/School Choice Bill -This bill establishes a statewide Education Savings Account (ESA) program, making Texas the home of the largest first-day launch of an ESA program in the country. The bill allows eligible students to receive public funding—up to $10,000 per student per year, with an additional $1,500 for students with disabilities—to use for approved educational expenses such as private school tuition, instructional materials, online courses, and educational therapies. As a result, parents have greater control over their child’s education, choosing the best educational environment—public, private, charter, or home-based—for their needs.
8. The Texas Legislature approved a budget increase to protect life. The Texas Legislature approved funding of $210 million for the Thriving Texas Families Program which serves to give mothers a better alternative to abortion by funding pregnancy resource centers and other agencies that can provide helpful resources and guidance for successful family formation. This will continue to help the thousands of babies that are being saved by the Texas Heartbeat Law and by Roe v. Wade being overturned.
9. SB 1257 by Sen. Hughes/Rep. Leach: Ensuring Adequate Health Care Coverage for Detransitioners – often people who attempt to “transition” from one sex to the other decided later that they want to change back to their original sex (detransition). Often insurance companies will provide coverage for the transition, but not the detransition. SB 1257 makes it clear that if the insurance provides coverage for the transition, they also have to provide coverage for the detransition. Detransitioners like Chloe Cole have brought this issues into the spotlight.
10. SCR 19 by Sen. Parker/Rep. Harris Davila: This bill authorizes the State Preservation Board to approve the construction of a "Texas Life Monument" at the State Capitol Complex, specifically on a site outside of the historic Capitol grounds as a way of celebrating the miracle of life. The monument will be the same as the National Life Monument in Washington, DC. The monument is of a mother with a world shaped womb with a child in the center. This bill sends a statement that Texas is pro-life.
11. HB 100 by Rep. Leo Wilson/Sen. Middleton: This bill will return the authority back to the Texas State Board of Education to select instructional materials for all public schools in the state. Instructional materials submitting a bid for consideration by the state board must meet 100% of the Texas Essential Knowledge Skills teaching standards. After 2011, the State Board of Education (SBOE) only voted on a recommendation list for textbooks. This has led to many school districts purchasing radical and leftist learning materials that often do not align with the TEKS that have been vetted by the SBOE and many parents. For example, Austin ISD colluded with a Canadian abortion provider to get materials for sex-ed. Now textbooks will be chosen by the 15 member SBOE and parents can follow the process and have a voice in which books are chosen.
12. HB 1106 by Rep. Shaheen/Sen. Hall – This bill will protect parents who want to affirm their child’s God-given identity. In some parts of the country, kids are being removed from their homes whenever a parent does not agree with the child’s gender identity. This law will make sure that parents are not accused of child abuse whenever they disagree with their child choosing a gender identity separate from their sex.
Bills that Did Not Pass
1. SB 240/HB 239 – Texas Women’s Privacy Act by Sen. Middleton/Rep. Swanson – These bills would have protected women in restrooms, locker rooms, domestic abuse shelters, and prisons by requiring local government entities to adopt a policy that separates these spaces based on biological sex. The bill also provided civil remedies and enforcement mechanisms to make sure these laws are followed. SB 240 successfully passed out of the Senate and was sent to the House State Affairs committee where it never received a hearing. Similarly, HB 239 never received a hearing in the House State Affairs committee either. Despite receiving public pressure from grass roots organizations and Texans like you, the Chairman of the House State Affairs committee, Chairman Ken King, refused to set the Texas Women’s Privacy Act for a public hearing. You can learn more about this bill at protectwomensprivacytexas.com.
2. SB 2880/HB 5510 – Women and Child Protection Act by Sen. Hughes/Rep. Leach – This bill would have addressed the illegal importation of dangerous chemical abortion drugs in our state. Despite our strong pro-life laws, some women have ordered abortion pills online from different parts of the country and the world. This bill would have strengthened our laws to enable our government to go after the distributors of abortion pills and protect the life of both the mother and the baby. This bill successfully passed out of the Senate and a hearing on the House bill was made early in the session, but both bills sat in House State Affairs committee for weeks. After pressure from pro-life groups, SB 2880 was passed out of House State Affairs committee but with little time to get on House floor calendar for a vote. Unfortunately, the paperwork that needed to be submitted to the Calendars committee was not completed in time.
3. SB 619 – Medical Conscience Protections by Sen. Sparks/Rep. Oliverson – This bill would have put in place strong religious freedom protections for healthcare providers by allowing doctors and nurses to decline provision of healthcare services that were contrary to their sincerely held religious beliefs. SB 16 successfully passed the Texas Senate and landed in the Texas House Public Health Committee where it never received a hearing from Chairman Gary VanDeaver.
