Houston Democrats

Update on the progress of this abomination of a bill:

In tonight's House session, Phil King rose to introduce HB 1212 with the customary simplistic talking points used to market "parental rights" bills to the masses. But King barely had time to burble out that a minor can't get a tattoo or an ear-piercing without her mama's signature before Rep. Jim Dunnam of Waco, Chair of the House Democratic Caucus, cut him off with a point of order.

:: 20 minutes of crickets chirping ::

Then they turned the microphones back on, and we were treated to the sound of Republicans getting testy.

It seems that the text of the committee version of the bill erroneously listed Democratic Rep. Ryan Guillen as a co-author. In keeping with House precedent, Dunnam wanted the bill sent all the way back to committee for correction, but Craddick refused, insisting that a reprinting by the clerk's office would suffice.

When Dunnam asked for the precedent for such a decision, Craddick brusquely informed him that "you just saw precedent made."

The deadline for calendar scheduling looms, and Beverly Wooley, Republican Chair of the Committee on Calendars, even made a panicky motion for an immediate meeting of the committee in order to reschedule the bill.

Wooley withdrew her motion almost at once, probably because she can't get the bill back onto a calendar until it's corrected. Something tells me that the mimeograph machine in the clerk's office will be running hot tonight.

Crossposted at Come and Take It!

Thanks for the update moiv. We really have to fight this one.

This session of the Texas Legislature saw 13 anti-choice bills introduced -- 10 in the House and 3 in the Senate. And in the House, only HB 1212 even made it out to the floor.

Phil King, author of this wonder of a parental rights bill that could have sent parents to jail for suggesting their daughter have an abortion, made an altruistic show of falling on his sword to help make sure today's House business got finished by the midnight deadline. He allowed that yet another sustainable point of order had been made against his bill, and asked that it be "placed on the table, subject to call."

There has been no action at all on two of the Senate's anti-woman, anti-freedom, anti-privacy bills since they were referred to committee. But HB 1212 has an identical companion bill in the Senate, SB 1150, which was rushed into public hearing this afternoon by the State Affairs Committee.

The public testimony on the bill lasted about two minutes, the only in-person testimony being provided by the Texas Alliance for Life. Since the vice-chair of the committee is Tommy Williams, the biggest misogynist in the Senate bar none, there is no reason to believe it won't be passed out favorably. But that doesn't mean that the Senate will pass SB 1150, or even vote on it -- as they won't if 11 Senate Dems stand strong and refuse to suspend the rules in order to consider it, as they did with Mary Denny's scurrilous attempt to restore Jim Crow. And as we have already seen, the House Dems stand ready to nitpick it to pieces.

So even though it's not completely over yet, the situation is looking better than I would have believed possible a couple of weeks ago. At least a woman in Texas won't be driving 200-300 miles just to get her "doctor talk" 24 hours before her abortion, or lose her right to say "no" to the state's factually challenged "informational materials" -- a bit of statutory repression found unconstitutional in a 2003 federal challenge to the same requirement in an Alabama law.

I'm almost ready to send a thank-you note to Tom DeLay. I've come to suspect that some of the usually impervious Lege Republicans might actually be paying attention to their constituents' calls, emails and letters opposing this and other anti-choice bills, if only out of a newborn fear of losing their body armor and having to wear DeLay's dirty laundry instead in 2006.

"Pssst! C'mere a minute. Y'all didn't mess up and find places for all them abortion bills on the calendars already, didja? Well, good ... listen, the less said the better, but let's just keep it that way."

But still . . . the session's not over until Mary Denny leaves town for her honeymoon, and right now another round of calls and emails to our senators sure couldn't hurt.

Email From Joe Nixon:

Dear Ms. Wall,

Thank you for contacting me regarding HB 2568 and HB 1212. I appreciate constituents who take the time to contact me about the various issues that arise during the legislative session.

You will be pleased to know that neither HB 2568, nor HB 1212 will be considered on the House floor this session, as the deadline for considering House bills has passed, and neither of these bills were heard in time. I will be sure to keep your thoughts in mind should legislation surrounding these issues come up again.

If I may be of any additional assistance regarding this or any other issue, please do not hesitate to contact me again. It is an honor to serve you in the Texas House of Representatives.

Very truly yours,

Joe Nixon

State Representative - District 133