Texas Abolitionist Lawmakers Stand Firm as Yet Another Pro-Life Regulation Passes
Texas lawmakers heard debate yesterday evening about the Woman and Child Protection Act, also known as House Bill 7, ultimately voting to pass the Pro-Life regulation along party lines.
Texas State Rep. David Lowe and Texas State Rep. Brent Money courageously refused to support the legislation: as Money stood beside him, Lowe warned his colleagues in an historic floor speech that House Bill 7 would merely create more regulations on abortion rather than truly abolishing the murder of preborn children.
Another Mere Regulation
House Bill 7, which was authored by Texas State Rep. Jeff Leach, and Senate Bill 7, which was authored by Texas State Sen. Bryan Hughes, would let Texas residents file lawsuits against out-of-state abortion pill providers.
Texans would receive at least $100,000 in judgments if they are immediate family members of the murdered preborn baby, and if they are not family members, they would receive $10,000 judgments with the remainder donated to a charity of their choosing.
Abolish Abortion Texas, alongside the Foundation to Abolish Abortion, were leading critics of House Bill 7, warning that the legislation would deny equal protection, mislead the public about the status of the abortion battle in Texas, and codify even more partiality against preborn babies into law.
Texas statute already bans the provision of abortion pills and has several pathways of civil liability against abortion pill providers. House Bill 7 would also not practically solve enforceability issues, and even if courts allowed enforcement outside of Texas, abortion pills could still enter from overseas sources.
The legislation also has clauses providing civil immunity for women who willfully order abortion pills to murder their preborn children. House Bill 7 therefore fails to make murdering anyone illegal for everyone in Texas, which remains the most obvious path toward truly abolishing abortion.
While these concerns influenced the conversation around House Bill 7 in conservative circles, the legislation advanced without the Pro-Life establishment actually heeding these concerns.
Bold Abolitionist Stances
Leach defended the legislation, insisting that House Bill 7 would save thousands of preborn babies, even as he noted that “women cannot be sued for receiving or obtaining abortion pills.”
Lowe delivered a speech on the floor explaining that he would not vote in favor of House Bill 7 because the legislation “does not actually abolish abortion.” The proposal instead “creates another roadblock, another layer of regulation,” without actually protecting preborn babies.
When the vote on House Bill 7 was finally taken, Lowe and Money were the only two lawmakers to white-light the measure, thereby refusing to cast a vote in favor of the legislation.
Beyond what may have been the most explicitly abolitionist floor speech ever delivered in Texas, the white-light votes from Lowe and Money indicate that some lawmakers are not only seeing the issues with Pro-Life establishment regulations, but are now refusing to vote for them.
More than three years after the overturn of Roe, abortions continue at astonishing levels in Texas, a reality that has finally been acknowledged by all sides of the debate. But regulatory measures that deny abolition and equal protection will never solve this problem.
By the grace of God, there are more Texas lawmakers than ever who support equal protection, and who are willing to sponsor legislation making the murder of anyone illegal for everyone.
The events surrounding House Bill 7 are an indication that lawmakers are also seeing how such policies must be pursued immediately, and how mere regulations on abortion simply delay abolition.