Abortion fight returning to the Legislature on Sunday

AUSTIN - Texas Republicans are planning to force another vote Sunday on a controversial proposal to eliminate a provision allowing late-term abortions when the fetus has been found to have a severe abnormality that could make survival unlikely.

An amendment filed Saturday by state Rep. Jonathan Stickland, R-Bedford, would force discussion on the proposal as part of a debate scheduled for Sunday on a bill to restructure the Texas Health and Human Services Commission.

That would set up the vote for almost exactly one month after the law change was briefly adopted on the state House floor on an 83-46 vote but was then knocked off in a procedural move by minority Democrats.

Stickland said in an interview that the newly-drafted amendment would be able to fend off another procedural maneuver. But he said he would consider pulling it down if the House takes up another anti-abortion measure, Senate Bill 575, to ban all insurance companies in Texas - even private insurers - from covering the procedure.

When the Houston Chronicle informed Democrats on the floor about Stickland's amendment Saturday, they said they would look for procedural and other ways to fight it.

The fireworks last month, which also came as part of an amendment to a noncontroversial bill, drew attention because they marked the first significant debate on abortion a session after Texas adopted one of the most far-reaching set of restrictions in the country.

The restrictions, known collectively as House Bill 2, bans all abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy but carved out an exemption for cases of severe fetal abnormality, which often cannot be detected until later. The constitutionality of House Bill 2 is still in question; a New Orleans-based federal appeals court is expected to issue a decision within weeks.

The amendment to eliminate the fetal abnormality exception was thought to be dead thanks to some behind-the-scenes moves. The noncontroversial bill, House Bill 2510, was not resurrected and the Senate companion, Senate Bill 202, quietly underwent a change in committee that changed its title in a way that made amendments difficult. In the Texas Legislature, amendments must be related to the subject of the underlying bill.

But Stickland said Saturday he had found a new vehicle in Senate Bill 200, a measure to restructure the health commission per the recommendations of the state Sunset Advisory Commission.

Stickland said in an interview that there was still strong support for eliminating the exception.

"It's real this time," he said.

A vote Sunday would come the same day that the state Senate is expected to debate the session's other big abortion bill, House Bill 3994, to restrict the ability of minors to get an abortion without parental permission.