Texas Senate Drops 20-Week Abortion Ban
Did approve tougher restrictions on abortion providers
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The Republican-led Texas Senate voted late Tuesday night for tough new restrictions on abortion clinics and providers, but abandoned efforts to ban the procedure after the 20th week of pregnancy.
While the U.S. House approved a similar ban after 20 weeks earlier in the day, the sponsor of the Texas bill said he took it out of the state plan because of fears it didn't have enough time to pass with just one week left in the special session.
The new restrictions would allow abortions only in surgical facilities and place greater controls on abortion-inducing medications.
The Senate also approved a major transportation bill that diverts nearly $1 billion a year from the state's reserve fund to help ease the state's road building and maintenance crisis under the crush of a rapidly expanding population.
The abortion measures stirred up the most passionate floor debate so far in the 30-day special session. AlthoughDemocrats had blocked the measures in the regular session, Republicans had pressured Gov. Rick Perry to put them on the agenda of the special session when Democrat's voting power would be diluted.
Hide Comments (0)
Editor's Note: As of February 29, 2024, commenting privileges on reason.com posts are limited to Reason Plus subscribers. Past commenters are grandfathered in for a temporary period. Subscribe here to preserve your ability to comment. Your Reason Plus subscription also gives you an ad-free version of reason.com, along with full access to the digital edition and archives of Reason magazine. We request that comments be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment and ban commenters for any reason at any time. Comments may only be edited within 5 minutes of posting. Report abuses.
Please
to post commentsMute this user?
Ban this user?
Un-ban this user?
Nuke this user?
Un-nuke this user?
Flag this comment?
Un-flag this comment?