AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas legislature passed Senate Bill 31 on Wednesday, which claims to clarify when doctors may be allowed to provide abortions under certain limited exceptions.
The bill was crafted by the anti-abortion lobby and backed by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Sen. Bryan Hughes — the architect of Texas’ abortion ban — to respond to public outrage. It keeps the state’s extreme restrictions firmly in place.
The bill will now be sent to the governor and is expected to be signed into law.
The following quote can be attributed to Blair Wallace (she/her), policy and advocacy strategist for reproductive rights at the ACLU of Texas:
“Texans know bullshit when we see it. While some legislators supported S.B. 31, hoping to mitigate the harm Texans are facing, this bill wasn’t written with our needs in mind. This bill is a political stunt designed to distract us from the damage the state’s abortion ban continues to cause. Pregnancy is too personal and too complex for politicians to legislate. S.B. 31 doesn’t undo the harm of the state’s abortion ban, and it never could. No amount of ‘clarification’ can fix a fundamentally unjust law. The only real solution is a full repeal of Texas’ abortion ban and a commitment to ensuring reproductive freedom for all Texans — no exceptions.”
