Texas House panel stamps OK on bills to restrict abortions

AUSTIN — A Republican-led House panel quietly moved forward Friday with efforts to enact some of the toughest abortion restrictions in the country, including a proposal abandoned by the Senate days earlier to outlaw the procedure after 20 weeks.

Aside from the 20-week ban, the measures approved Friday would allow abortions only in surgical facilities, require doctors performing abortions to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital and place greater controls on abortion-inducing medications.

Friday's vote by the House State Affairs Committee was in stark difference to a raucous hearing held Thursday on the abortion bills, where some 700 people signed up to testify in an attempt to carry out a “citizen filibuster.”

Impassioned testimony spilled over from Thursday evening into Friday morning before the committee chairman, Rep. Byron Cook, R-Corsicana, shut it down around 3:45 a.m., leaving hundreds unable to speak.

Later Friday, the committee met in a small room — where about 30 people squeezed in — lacking web streaming capabilities. The bills were passed in a matter of minutes without discussion.

Democrats blasted Republicans for using the special session to pass anti-abortion bills that are “political fodder for folks running for statewide office.”

Democrats and pro-abortion-rights advocates argue the proposals would deny abortions even to women who are raped and would lead to 37 of the state's 42 abortion clinics being forced to close, leaving facilities only in San Antonio, Houston, Dallas, and Austin.

“They're playing political games with women's health,” said Rep. Jessica Farrar, D-Houston. “It's really unfortunate and disgusting and embarrassing that in this state ... we are doing something like this to women just so that people can get elected.”

Republicans brushed aside the criticism, arguing the measures aim to protect fetuses after 20 weeks and increase the overall level of care for women undergoing abortions.

“We'll get 100 votes on the floor and not all 100 of us are running for statewide office,” said Rep. Bryan Hughes, a Republican from Mineola who pushed to have anti-abortion bills added to the special session call. “The majority of Texans want this done and that's what we're here for.”

On a party-line vote, the panel Friday approved House Bill 60 by Rep. Jodie Laubenberg, R-Parker, which rolls all of the new anti-abortion regulations into one catch-all bill. The panel also approved HB 60's companion legislation, Senate Bill 5, which passed the upper chamber Tuesday after the bill's sponsor stripped the 20-week ban from the proposal.

The House panel amended SB 5 Friday to include the 20-week ban. A third proposal, a stand-alone bill for the 20-week ban, also won approval Friday.

“I have text messages from senators saying get it back in, we want to vote on it,” Laubenberg said of the 20-week ban. “That is the heart of the bill.”

With time running out in the Legislature's special session, the full House is set to debate the anti-abortion bills Sunday. Tuesday is the last day of the special session.

If the 20-week abortion ban is approved by the full House, the bills will have to go back to Senate for the upper chamber to sign off on the change before they get sent to Gov. Rick Perry for his signature.

That could set the stage for a final showdown over the anti-abortion measures in the Senate, where Democrats would have to stage a marathon filibuster session to block the bills.

“There are a lot of steps in between passing the bills in the House and getting them to the Senate,” said Rick Svatora, a spokesman for Sen. Wendy Davis, a Forth Worth Democrat who could help carry out any potential filibuster. “We're waiting to see what the House does and how that process plays out.”

drauf@express-news.net