Government agencies in Texas will not be allowed to have contract agreements with abortion providers or their affiliates, lawmakers ruled late Tuesday night.
The state lawmakers approved Senate Bill 4, prohibiting local and state government agencies from engaging in financial contracts with abortion providers, in a 21-10 vote according to the Texas Tribune.
Texas laws don’t allow tax money to pay for abortions, but the new bill expands the provision to include any financial contracts that exist between government agencies and abortion clinics, as well as clinic affiliates that don’t provide abortions themselves.
“Should our tax dollars … fund the culture of death that the abortion industry promotes?” said state Sen. Don Huffines on the state senate floor.
Democratic lawmakers are upset with the newly lawful implementation of the bill, arguing that it will cut access to health services that aren’t abortions. Texas senators, however, said that the new bill would only affect Planned Parenthood because it performs abortions at surgical centers that are separate from the clinics which offer standard reproductive healthcare, in a previous hearing Friday.
The Senate also passed two other abortion laws Monday, SB10 and SB73, requiring physicians and facilities to report abortion details and to fine those who don’t comply. Physicians that don’t adhere to reporting requirements face a $500 fine each day they are in violation.
SB 73 requires doctors to ask if minors sought abortions “because of a medical emergency” and if they received parental consent first. SB 10 demands that physicians submit reports to the state health commission when complications occur during an abortion procedure. The report asks information including the patient’s birth year, marital status, race, last menstrual cycle date, number of previous abortions, and any previous births.
Reproductive rights groups have tried to argue that these requirements encroach on the privacy rights of patients as well as doctors, but their efforts did not prevent the bill’s passage.
Abortion reporting requirements are “sporadic and inefficient,” said state Sen. Campbell, author of SB 10. “Collecting this data is important to guarantee best medical practices,” Campbell said, adding that the state should “cast a wider net” to gather better data.
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