On Tuesday, the Texas House of Representatives will debate on the floor amendments that will strongly impact the Pro-Life landscape in Texas. For years, Texas Right to Life has worked with stalwart Pro-Life state representatives and senators in achieving life-affirming budget allocations. In 2011, for example, we partnered with our elected representatives and helped them divert $64.2 million of your tax dollars from the abortion industry in Texas. With tax funding in the right hands, Texas becomes safer for women, children, and families. Tuesday’s House floor debate will be crucial in determining whether your hard-earned tax dollars will go to the abortion industry or to life-affirming programs and initiatives.
In response to twenty anti-life amendments seeking to defund the life-saving Alternatives to Abortion Program, Representative Dade Phelan (R-Beaumont) and Pro-Life Whip Representative Bryan Hughes (R-Mineola) will each introduce amendments to increase the funding of the program by $6.7 million. Representative Greg Bonnen, MD (R-League City) filed an amendment to change the name of the Alternatives to Abortion Program to Pregnancy and Parenting Services.
Representative Scott Turner (R-Rockwall) will work to ensure that the lives of human embryos are legally safeguarded by an amendment to prohibit taxpayer funding of embryo-destroying research. The amendment is timely and important because there are no current restrictions on this type of taxpayer-funded research.
Representative Jeff Leach (R-Plano) will introduce an amendment to protect young Texas students from sex education classes and curricula designed by the predatory abortion industry. Through sex ed contracts, the abortion industry currently has free access to a young customer base to whom they can market their top-selling product: abortion. If the House passes the Leach amendment, abortion providers and affiliates will be barred from teaching and providing materials for courses on human sexuality.
Additionally, Representative Molly White (R-Belton) will introduce an amendment requiring schools to follow federal guidelines for teaching courses on human sexuality. Although abstinence-based sex education is the law in Texas, a vague budget has provided a loophole to a wide range of questionable materials. The abortion industry in Texas has exploited that loophole for free advertising in Texas schools. Representative White’s amendment will ensure that the predatory practices of the abortion industry remain locked out of the sexual education programs in Texas.
Texas Right to Life and the majority of Pro-Life legislators are committed to strengthening the Pro-Life future of Texas. The state budget is a key component in ensuring that women, preborn children, young Texans, and every vulnerable life is protected and respected in tangible ways. Tune in to the 84th Legislative Session to watch hearings on each of these amendments on Tuesday, March 31, beginning at 10:00 a.m.
