Texas Governor Greg Abbott says the special session of the Texas legislature will continue despite a publicity stunt by Democrats who walked out rather than doing their jobs. Abbott and pro-life advocates hope the session will produce another pro-life bill protecting babies from abortion.
Abbott announced the special session will continue, and noted a poll showing Texans support it.
“Texans Oppose Walkouts to Avoid Votes. No one else gets paid to walk off their job. Quitters never win,” the Republican governor said on Twitter. “We will continue successive Special Sessions until elected representatives do what they were elected to do—debate issues & cast votes.”
News of the walkout, planned in response to a GOP overhaul of election laws, was first reported by NBC News and later by Texas Democratic Party Chair Gilberto Hinojosa on Monday in a statement. It wasn’t immediately clear how many of the 67 Democrats in the Texas House planned to participate in the walkout, but party leaders said it was enough to bring the Legislature to a halt.
In his Twitter post Monday night, Abbott cited a poll from the Texas Public Policy Foundation, which found that by a two-to-one margin, Texans oppose state legislators using “procedural maneuvers” to prevent voting.
More than half of Texans (54 percent), said they oppose members staging walkouts that would “deny the Legislature the quorum it needs in order to hold votes.” Just 27 percent of Texans say they support the moves, the poll shows.
“Walkouts are only supported by the extreme left,” said Texas Public Policy Foundation Chief Communications Officer Brian Phillips in a statement. “Most Texans see it as a childish and desperate move, and they don’t like temper tantrums. We can have respectful disagreements and energetic debates. But the process must move forward. There will be a side that gets the votes and side that doesn’t. If one side can abuse the rules to prevent votes, then we cease to have a functioning democracy. The left is embarrassing themselves and Texas.”
Abbott urged lawmakers last Wednesday to pass a bill to protect women and unborn babies from abortion drugs during their special legislative session.
Texas lawmakers passed several pro-life laws already this year, including one to prohibit abortions once an unborn baby’s heartbeat is detectable. However, the heartbeat law is expected to be blocked in court before it goes into effect.
The additional pro-life bill that Abbott supports would address an immediate and growing problem with abortion drugs in Texas.
According to his office, the bill is similar to state Senate Bill 394, “which prohibits people from providing abortion-inducing drugs by mail or delivery service, strengthens the laws applicable to the reporting of abortions and abortion complications, and ensures that no abortion-inducing drugs are provided unless there is voluntary and informed consent.”
REACH PRO-LIFE PEOPLE WORLDWIDE! Advertise with LifeNews to reach hundreds of thousands of pro-life readers every week. Contact us today.
The bill also would require that doctors provide the abortion drugs after verifying the pregnancy in-person to ensure there are no life-threatening problems, such as an ectopic pregnancy.
“The 87th Legislative Session was a monumental success for the people of Texas, but we have unfinished business to ensure that Texas remains the most exceptional state in America,” the Republican governor said in a statement. “I look forward to working with my partners in the Legislature to pass this legislation as we build a brighter future for all who call Texas home.”
Texas and other states are seeing an increase in abortion numbers as abortion activists push to make the life-destroying drugs more widely available.
According to Texas Right to Life:
The number of elective abortions in Texas fell by approximately 36,000 from 1990 until 2017. Then the number of abortions rose in 2018 and again in 2019. …
In 2017, chemical abortions represented 32% of all abortions, but that figure rose to 34.7% in 2018 and skyrocketed to 39.4% in 2019. This corresponds directly with the increase in total abortions. Further, in 2016, the FDA also eased regulations that define when the abortion industry may administer mifepristone and misoprostol, the chemical abortion drugs.
The numbers may grow even more after President Joe Biden’s administration stopped enforcing safety regulations on the abortion drugs earlier this year, thus allowing them to be sold through the mail without the woman ever seeing a doctor in person.
Several other states also passed laws this year to address the growing problem. These includes laws to inform women of the life-saving abortion pill reversal treatment in Indiana, Louisiana, Montana, South Dakota and West Virginia, and regulations on abortion drugs that protect mothers and unborn babies in Arizona, Arkansas, Indiana, Ohio, Oklahoma and Montana.
Abortion drugs are dangerous for the mother as well as her unborn baby. In the United States, the abortion drug mifepristone has been linked to at least 24 women’s deaths and 4,000 serious complications. Risks include excessive bleeding, severe abdominal pain, infection and hemorrhage.
A 2009 study “Immediate Complications After Medical Compared With Surgical Termination of Pregnancy,” in Obstetrics and Gynecology found a complication rate of approximately 20 percent for the abortion drugs compared to 5.6 percent for surgical abortions. Hemorrhages and incomplete abortions were among the most common complications.
ACTION ALERT: Contact Texas state lawmakers.
