Texas Senate advances five pro-life measures in special session

The Texas Senate has advanced five pro-life measures in a late-night vote during a special legislative session called by Gov. Greg Abbott last month.

According to Church Militant, Abbott announced the special session on June 6 to consider key pro-life bills that were killed during the regular session.

"Considering all the successes of the 85th legislative session, we should not be where we are today," Abbott told the lawmakers.

"A special session was entirely avoidable, and there was plenty of time for the legislature to forge compromises to avoid the time and taxpayer expense of a special session. As governor, if I am going to call a special session, I intend to make it count," he added.

In a late-night vote on July 25, the lawmakers approved Senate Bill 10, which would strengthen requirements for physicians to report complications during an abortion procedure. Under the legislation, physicians who failed to comply with the requirements within 72 hours could face a fine of $500 for each day of the violation.

The report that would be submitted to the state health commission must include pieces of information, such as the patient's birth year, race, marital status, the date of her last menstrual cycle, the number of previous abortions and the number of previous live births, The Texas Tribune reported.

Sen. Donna Campbell, the bill's author, contended that the current reporting requirements on abortion complications were "sporadic and inefficient."

"Collecting this data is important to guarantee best medical practices," she said, adding that the state needed to "cast a wider net" in gathering data.

The senators also passed Senate Bill 73, which bolsters requirements for physicians to report abortions performed on minors. The reporting requirements under the said bill would include whether minors seeking abortions did so because of a medical emergency and whether they obtained parental consent or a judicial bypass.

Other bills passed by the Senate include Senate Bill 4, which prevents Planned Parenthood and its surrogates from receiving taxpayer funding, and Senate Bill 11, which prevents a physician from imposing a do-not-resuscitate (DNR) without an order from a patient or the patient's legal representative.

On Wednesday, the Senate passed Senate Bill 8, which would require women to purchase separate abortion coverage in their insurance plans.

"Texas must take steps to prohibit taxpayer dollars from subsidizing abortions that are not medically necessary, and to give employers the freedom to choose whether or not they provide coverage for abortion," said the bill's author, Sen. Brandon Creighton.

The five bills, which were among the 20 items Abbott placed on the agenda for the special session, are now headed to the Texas House for consideration.