Texas House moves to protect women’s private spaces, stem flow of abortion drugs

Texas lawmakers have passed bills to protect women’s private spaces and stem the flow of abortion drugs into the state.

During a summer special session, the House finally passed the Texas Women’s Privacy Act, which restricts access to restrooms, locker rooms and other multiuse facilities by biological sex. The proposal had been around since 2017, according to Texas Scorecard.

Rep. Angelia Orr, R-Itasca, the bill’s sponsor, said it would provide “girls and women with an expectation of safe and secure spaces,” including in public facilities such as schools and courthouses.

The legislation also requires the Texas Department of Criminal Justice to house inmates according to biological sex and reserves family violence shelters’ services for biological women and their children.

Government entities that violate the law would face fines starting at $25,000, with penalties for repeat offenses rising as high as $125,000.

Democrats denounced the measure as “the bathroom bill” and mocked enforcement provisions, but the House approved it in an 86-43 vote. It now goes to the Senate, which has passed previous versions of the proposal, and, if approved, would then go to Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican who indicated his support by personally placing it on the special session agenda.

The Republican-led House also passed the Woman and Child Protection Act, which allows lawsuits against those who manufacture or provide abortion-inducing drugs.

While state restrictions such as the Heartbeat Act have prompted the closure of most Texas abortion clinics, officials estimate 20,000 to 30,000 abortion pills are illegally mailed into the state each year.

Lawmakers hope legal awards of $100,000 or more from successful lawsuits will deter pill shipments. However, women themselves cannot be sued for obtaining or taking the pills.

“This bill is about our future, fellow Texans,” Rep. Jeff Leach, R-Allen, told colleagues. “Specifically, they are unborn, but they’re alive, and they are worthy of our focus and our work here tonight.

“These fellow Texans have hands and feet … they have heartbeats and they have rights, and this bill is about protecting the rights of those fellow Texans and protecting their moms as well.”

Leach said the proposal was the result of months of negotiations between lawmakers and stakeholders, ranging from Texas Right to Life and the Texas Conference of Catholic Bishops to the Texas Medical Association and Texas Hospital Association, according to Texas Scorecard.

The outcome, he said, was a bill “carefully and meticulously crafted” and “compassionate to its core.”

It bars perpetrators of sexual assault, family violence or coercion from bringing suits and shields Texas physicians who prescribe the drugs for legitimate medical purposes such as miscarriages, ectopic pregnancies or emergencies.

The Senate is expected to approve the measure before sending it to Abbott, who is strongly pro-life.