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BY ROXY SZAL | It’s been a little over a week since Texas Democratic state legislators decamped to Washington, D.C., in protest over Gov. Greg Abbott’s uncompromising agenda during the state’s special legislative session. Republican attempts to pass extreme voter suppression legislation are taking up the bulk of media attention—understandably. But the fight isn’t just for voting rights: It’s also about reproductive rights, which are under unprecedented attack in the Lone Star State.
Even though the Texas Democrats have effectively derailed extreme legislation in the House for now, the Texas Senate is rounding the bend on passage of many Republican priorities for the special session. (Note: To become a law, a bill has to pass both the House the the Senate, and be signed by the governor; with the Democratic legislators in Washington, D.C., the Texas House lacks a quorum to conduct business.)
One bill that passed through the Texas Senate on Friday, Senate Bill 4, bans medication abortion after seven weeks and is seen by many as a de facto ban on medication abortion—which accounts for about 40 percent of abortions performed annually. Although the FDA has approved use of mifepristone—the key medication used for miscarriage and abortion care—for up to 70 days gestation, the bill at issue would severely shorten that to just 49 days in Texas.
Texas state Rep. Donna Howard is one of the Democrats that fled the state. As a registered nurse and current chair of the Texas Women’s Health Caucus, Howard has spoken out against S.B. 4, as well as S.B. 8—one of the nation’s most extreme abortion bans that criminalizes abortions after just six weeks gestation and deputizes private citizens to enforce the law. The law is set to take effect on September 1—though a broad coalition of Texas abortion providers, doctors, clergy, abortion funds and support networks filed a lawsuit against the bill last Tuesday.
Howard says Republicans’ recent mission to essentially ban abortion in the state is one of the major issues preceding their protest. Howard has also repeatedly advocated for and filed a bill to make anyone enrolled in the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) eligible to receive free birth control, a measure that has proved to reduce both the number of teenage pregnancies and abortions in states like Colorado. The bill stalled in the House and looks unlikely to pass.
Howard spoke to Ms. late last week to discuss the flawed assumptions behind the Republican push to restrict abortion access in Texas and the real-life impact of these laws on everyday Texans.
(To read the full article, click here.)
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