AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - Debate has finally begun in the Texas House over whether to tighten restrictions on rules allowing teens to have abortions if they can’t get required parental consent.
Victoria Republican Rep. Geanie Morrison’s bill would make sweeping changes to the so-called judicial bypass process. It allows girls younger than 18 to get a judge’s permission to have an abortion without telling their parents in extreme cases.
The law governing judicial bypass went untouched since it became statute in 1999. Each year, about 300 teens who meet certain criteria are granted a court-ordered abortion.
Opponents of Morrison’s proposal say the changes would mar a system already working properly, and may endanger girls already in difficult situations.
Texas has some of the nation’s toughest abortion restrictions. But the Republican-controlled House is looking for dwindling ways to notch further anti-abortion successes, and is targeting judicial bypass.
Restricting that process was named one of the five priority issues by anti-abortion group Texas Right to Life, and several Republicans filed bills to address what they see as an abortion loophole. Many have since been withdrawn in support of Morrison’s measure.
Melissa Conway, the group’s spokeswoman, said the “loophole-ridden” process keeps parents in the dark and allows teens to get “dangerous abortions without the guidance of their parents.”
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DELL URGES TEXAS LAWMAKERS TO STOP ANTI-GAY MEASURE
Dell Inc. has joined opposition to a Texas bill that would attempt to defy the U.S. Supreme Court if gay marriage is legalized.
The computer maker released a statement Wednesday saying it has let Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott know that the Round Rock-based company considers diversity a “business imperative.”
Texas business groups have urged lawmakers for months to not pursue Indiana-style laws that gay rights activists say discriminate. But Dell becomes the most visible company to voice public opposition.
Nearly every Republican in the Texas House is sponsoring a bill that would prohibit state and local officials from issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. The proposal must pass the House by midnight Thursday to advance.
Dozens of other bills are in front of the measure with the deadline looming.
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HOUSE OKS ESTABLISHING STATE BUILDING MAINTENANCE FUND
To keep state buildings from falling into disrepair - as some have, including the Texas School for the Deaf - lawmakers have voted to establish a deferred maintenance fund and oversight committee.
Sponsored by Tyler Republican Sen. Kevin Eltife, the bill authorizing the fund cleared the House on Wednesday via a voice vote.
It needs only a final lower chamber vote before heading to Gov. Greg Abbott for signature into law.
Under the bill, the lieutenant governor and House speaker would each appoint three members to the committee.
The measure’s House sponsor, Rep. Charlie Geren, said the committee would ensure sufficient funding - including $20.6 million already earmarked for deferred maintenance and emergency repairs needed starting this year - is spent “the way they’re supposed to be spending it.”
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ON DECK
House lawmakers are bracing for a long and bumpy upcoming ride. Thursday at midnight is the deadline for House bills to get their first vote by the full chamber. Measures that don’t make it are considered all but dead - though they could live on as amendments attached to other bills.
The flow of legislation has been far more leisurely in the Senate, which has no such looming deadline to pass its own bills. The upper chamber resumes work Thursday at 11 a.m.
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QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Get Congress to change it. You don’t like the Federal Reserve Bank, if you have a problem with the Federal Reserve Bank,” - Rep. Joe Pickett, D-El Paso, to Republican Rep. Jonathan Stickland of Bedford. Pickett was defending his bill to empower Federal Reserve law enforcement officers to make arrests, searches and seizures on bank property or while protecting bank personnel - and Stickland was objecting.
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