With 'A Friend in the White House,' Texas Lawmakers Prep Anti-Woman Attack

Lending credence to those who warn Donald Trump’s administration will be dangerous for women nationwide, conservative Texas lawmakers last week filed a slew of new bills attacking reproductive rights.

Legislation filed by GOP state representative Byron Cook would require healthcare centers to bury or cremate fetal remains after an abortion or miscarriage. In October, women’s rights advocates delivered 5,500 signatures to the Department of State Health Services (DSHS) opposing a similar—and costly (pdf)—proposal put forth by that agency at the direction of Republican Gov. Greg Abbott.

At a hearing on the DSHS proposal held the day after Trump’s election, “[s]ome women were in tears as they shared stories about their traumatic miscarriages and abortions,” the Austin American-Statesman reported. “They said they would have suffered more had they been required to bury or cremate the fetus.”

Notably, Vice President-elect Mike Pence signed a bill containing a similar provision as Indiana governor earlier this year. It was blocked from going into effect by a federal judge in June.

Another proposal, put forth by Republican state senator Charles Schwertner, gives lip service to top anti-choice talking points. Schwertner’s “Pre-Born Protection and Dignity Act” would “declare something that is already illegal everywhere in the United States, so-called ‘partial-birth’ abortion, illegal in the state of Texas,” the Dallas Observer explained. “Schwertner’s bill would also ban most fetal tissue donation in the state, despite the fact that Texas has not had an active fetal tissue donation program 2010.”

Citing Schwertner’s legislation among other “high-priority bills,” Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick declared last week:

Yet another proposed bill was described by the Observer as “the first shot in a battle that could end in abortion being banned in the state.”

Of state senator Bob Hall’s effort, the outlet wrote: