AUSTIN – Gov. Rick Perry set off an immediate firestorm Tuesday by adding sweeping anti-abortion bills to the special session agenda, including one that opponents believe could shut down 80 percent of the state’s abortion clinics.
“We have an obligation to protect unborn children, and to hold those who peddle these abortions to standards that would minimize the death, disease and pain they cause,” Perry said.
The governor opened the door for debate on bills to ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, mandate that clinics meet the expensive standards of surgical centers and require doctors who perform abortions to maintain surgical privileges at a nearby hospital.
Anti-abortion rights groups applauded the move, saying such measures protect women’s health, but Democrats called them a backdoor gambit to ban abortions.
Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, D-San Antonio, cited the bipartisan and productive tenor of the regular session in lamenting the agenda Perry is setting in “renewing the attack on women.”
Abortion joins highway funding, revising capital murder penalties for 17-year-olds and the already highly partisan subject of redistricting on the special session agenda. The governor sets the topics in the 30-day special sessions. The current session must end June 25, meaning the abortion measures will have to be slammed through in less than two weeks.
The abortion bills came up during the regular session and none made it to the floor of either chamber. But rule changes in a special session make it harder to block contentious legislation.
Banning abortions after 20 weeks affect only about 3 percent of the procedures performed in Texas, but they generally target pregnancies where fetal abnormalities have been identified.
Perry and other proponents believe 20 weeks is a moral deadline, citing disputed studies that hold a fetus can experience pain after that point. Arizona recently passed a similar ban that has been overturned in federal court.
Turning abortion clinics into surgical centers would prevent abuses like those that took place in the Pennsylvania clinic operated by convicted physician Kermit Gosnell, said Joe Pojman, executive director of Texas Alliance for Life.
But opponents cite the 117 pages of requirements for surgical centers, including backup generators, sterilized air systems and blood supplies, as prohibitively expensive and unnecessary for procedures that don’t include incisions. Only six of the state’s 37 abortion providers now meet the surgical center standards.
Follow Christy Hoppe on Twitter at @christyhoppe.
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