May 21, 2007
The effect of SB785

SB785 is one of the save-my-job anti-abortion bills that the House will be debating today. It will require that statistics about judicial bypasses granted for underage women seeking abortions without parental notification be published on a county-by-county basis instead of statewide. This will have the practical effect of ensuring that the exact number of bypasses granted by some judges is public knowledge, since as this spreadsheet shows, many counties in Texas have only one or two district judges in them. This in turn would presumably subject these judges to political backlashes - or worse - unlike their big county brethren. I personally prefer that judges make their decisions based on the law and not external considerations such as these, but this will spell the end of that. But hey, maybe it'll help Tom Craddick hang on as Speaker. And that's what really counts, right?

Posted by Charles Kuffner on May 21, 2007 to That's our Lege
Comments

Maybe today, maybe not. SB785 has been postponed twice today already and Craddick has told members that they won't be there late tonight. One point of order has already been raised. Midnight tomorrow is the deadline to vote out Senate bills on second reading. If he wants to kill half or more of the remaining calendar, then Craddick will bring it up. If he wants to salvage what he can of the calendar, he'll find other more pressing pieces of legislation for consideration. More high drama in the waning days.

Posted by: Rebecca on May 21, 2007 4:15 PM