Three cheers for the end of session death-by-calendar watch.
A major Texas bill that was poised to offer a blueprint for abortion restrictions has likely died in the state legislature.
Senate Bill 2880, a top priority for the state’s abortion opponents, would have targeted people who manufacture, distribute, mail or otherwise provide abortion medication in Texas. It would have enabled private citizens to sue people who distributed or provided abortion pills in Texas for a minimum of $100,000. Backers said the bill was meant to hit organizations such as Aid Access, an abortion telehealth provider that helps people in states with abortion bans who want to terminate their pregnancies.
But despite clearing key legislative hurdles — the bill passed the state’s Republican-led Senate in April and received approval from a House committee Friday evening — SB 2880 was not scheduled for a floor vote in Texas’ House of Representatives. Tuesday is the deadline for Senate bills to receive a vote in the House; the bill’s omission means it will not make it to the governor’s desk before the legislative session ends this week.
“It’s very disappointing to see that it likely won’t pass this session,” said Ashley Leenerts, legislative director of Texas Right to Life, which helped craft the bill and lobbied heavily for its passage.
SB 2880 seemed poised to pass. The bill’s Senate sponsor, Republican Bryan Hughes, chairs his chamber’s influential state affairs committee, which oversees legislation affecting state policy and government. The bill had also been reviewed and approved by staff for Gov. Greg Abbott, Leenerts said.
“This has been Texas Right to Life’s top priority since the session began,” she said. “We’re going to keep working and do our best. But it did seem like there had been support from leadership in the House, Senate and governor.”
Components of the bill could move forward as amendments to other legislation or if Abbott, who opposes abortion, calls a special legislative session this summer. But multiple activists from Texas Right to Life said they are unaware of bills that could serve as an amendment vehicle for SB 2880’s abortion medication restrictions. Abbott has also not indicated that he will summon the legislature back for a special session.
See here for some background. Greg Abbott has been quick and relentless on the special session trigger in years past, so I’m not ready to rest easy just yet. And even if this is allowed to let slide for now, you can be sure it will be back with a vengeance in 2027, assuming a continued Republican trifecta and no changes at the federal level. It’s a win and it’s important to celebrate wins, just keep some perspective.
Along those lines, the Current identified another win.
Similarly, voter-suppression measure Senate Bill 16 ran out of time to be brought to the floor for a vote. That legislation, modeled after the nationally proposed SAVE act, would have required voters to show documents proving citizenship when registering to vote, which critics argue would disenfranchise legally eligible voters who don’t have a passport or birth certificate readily available.
It’s already illegal for noncitizens to vote, but SB 16 proponents argued the new proposal would verify citizenship. However, voting-rights advocates said the bill would create significant barriers for people otherwise entitled to cast ballots. One in 10 eligible voters nationally would find it difficult to prove citizenship, according to a national survey reported on by NPR. Further, married women who changed their name after marriage would also be disenfranchised, critics argue, because their birth certificate often doesn’t match their married name.
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Progressive activists celebrated the wins over the weekend, saying Democratic lawmakers slowed down the process overall so the House was only able to pass five bills Saturday.
The 89th Texas Legislative Session ends June 2, leaving just a week left to fight over bills left in committee and the Senate chamber.
“These two bills, SB 2880 and SB 16, were our biggest priorities this week and we killed them both,” progressive Texas politics Instagram account @howdypolitics posted. “That’s no small thing and we should celebrate. Especially in a state like Texas where wins feel so rare.”
The SAVE Act, at both the federal and state levels, is deeply stupid and would likely be quite harmful to a swath of Republican voters, but neither of those has ever been an impediment. Celebrate the wins indeed.