WEEK IN REVIEW

SENATE APPROVES “LIFE OF THE MOTHER ACT”, E-VERIFY REQUIREMENTS

(AUSTIN) — The Senate on Tuesday gave unanimous approval to a bill that is intended to clarify when doctors can perform medically necessary abortions under the state’s near universal ban. The health of the mother has always been protected by the state’s pro-life laws going back to 1880, said Mineola Senator and bill author Bryan Hughes. Despite that, he says, there have been a number of cases since the state’s abortion ban was reinstated following the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade in which women faced serious medical consequences and even a few deaths due to pregnancy complications - complications that would’ve permitted an abortion under state law. Some of these issues may have stemmed from doctors who weren’t sure if they were facing legal peril for performing the procedure. “Because of cases like that, we all thought it important that the law be crystal clear – we don’t want to have any reason for hesitation,” said Hughes.

The bill, SB 31, would make it clear that any pregnancy that threatens either serious health complications or the mother’s life can and an abortion should be performed. This includes cases of ectopic pregnancies and undelivered or “missed” miscarriages. Furthermore, it allows doctors to perform abortions under these circumstances before the woman finds herself in mortal danger. “If a mom has that condition, and the docs can see where it’s going, they don’t have to wait until the mom gets even worse before they treat her,” said Hughes. The bill also creates a mandatory education program, for doctors and lawyers advising them, to ensure that all obstetricians in the state are well informed of the conditions under which an abortion can be performed.

Wednesday, Brenham Senator Lois Kolkhorst won passage of a measure that would require all businesses, public and private, to participate in the immigration status checks for employees available for free through the federal E-Verify database. Texas currently requires that all state agencies, and companies they contract with, compare personal data submitted on an employee’s I-9 form with federal data to ensure the person is eligible to work in Texas. Kolkhorst’s bill, SB 324, would have Texas join nine other states in requiring that all private businesses likewise use the database. “E-Verify is the most functional and cost-effective method of immigration reform the state of Texas can implement to ensure that US citizens and those able to work in the state of Texas get those jobs,” said Kolkhorst. “E-Verify also ensures that migrants are not victims of labor trafficking.”

School resource officers would be permitted to again issue citations for students who violate school policy under a bill approved Monday by the Senate. This had been the law in Texas before it was repealed in 2013 amid concerns of inconsistent enforcement, but bill author, Conroe Senator and Education K-16 chair Brandon Creighton, said that now the pendulum has swung too far in the other direction. “Current disciplinary tools are just not enough,” said Creighton. “Some have said that we’ve gone from zero tolerance to zero consequences in the classroom.”

The bill, SB 1924, would permit school resource officers to issue class-C misdemeanor citations to students for repeated violations of school policy. In cases involving threats or actual violence towards a teacher, the student would face a criminal referral to law enforcement. Creighton accepted three amendments to the bill from Dallas Senator Royce West, who doesn’t want to see the state get back into the situation it had prior to the citation ban. “We’ve got to make certain that we’ve got zero tolerance for that kind of [violent] behavior,” said West. “But we’ve got to also make certain that we have common sense as relates to some of the penalties that are going to be meted out.” These amendments would require that citations are issued only after other interventions have been exhausted, expunge such offenses once the student reaches the age of 18, and if arrests have to be made, that they happen out of the view of the student’s peers.

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