PETITION CLOSED

  • The time period for signing this petition has ended.
Tell Texas Lawmakers to Stop Playing Politics With Women's Health
  1. Signatures
    181 out of 1,000
    Petitioning
    1. The TX State House
  2. Created By
    Shelby Knox
    New York, NY
About this Petition Petition Letter Petition Updates

Texas is in a state of emergency. The Lone Star State has the highest rate of uninsured people in the nation, 26 percent, or 5.8 million Texans that go without health care. The state currently ranks 3rd in the number of people living in poverty. Due to a $27 billion dollar budget shortfall, the state faces a shutdown of essential services if fixes aren’t made and fast.

In response, Governor Rick Perry has demanded legislators fast track an “emergency item” before turning to any other state business: a bill that would require women seeking an abortion to be subjected to a sonogram 24 hours before having the procedure.

HB 15, already passed in the Senate and moving quickly through the House, has nothing to do with repairing the state’s looming crises and everything to do with shaming women. It makes no exceptions for victims of rape or incest or those terminating wanted pregnancies after discovering fetal abnormalities, all situations in which this procedure might cause additional trauma. It places an undue burden on all women seeking a legal medical procedure who have to travel to the clinic twice, no matter how far it is or how limited their means.

Traumatizing women doesn’t create a single job or help one single Texas family facing life without health insurance. Texas voters sent lawmakers to Austin to focus on the true emergencies impacting their daily lives, not to play politics with women’s lives to score points with a narrow, extreme base. It’s time to tell lawmakers that voters will remember come election time who was more interested in political pandering than giving millions of Texas the help they need in this dire financial climate.

Sign the petition today to tell lawmakers to vote no on HB 15 and send a message to Texans that they are serious about real emergencies facing the Lone Star State. 

 

Why People Are Signing
Recent Signatures

Vote 'No' on HB 15

Greetings,

HB 15, a bill that would require women to undergo a sonogram 24 hours before obtaining an abortion, is set to come to a vote in the coming days. Despite a $27 million dollar budget shortfall and the highest rate of uninsured people in the nation – 5.8 million Texans – the Governor has deemed HB 15 an “emergency item” to be addressed by the legislature before anything else.

HB 15 isn’t a bill to create jobs, fix the budget, or help uninsured Texans. It’s not even a bill that will reduce abortions – all available studies done on similar sonogram legislation show women don’t change their minds about the procedure, they just have a harder time accessing it. If you and your fellow lawmakers are serious about reducing abortions, you should get serious about supporting prevention measures such as family planning that reduce unintended pregnancies in the first place.

As a constituent, I am appalled my lawmakers are more interested in playing politics with women’s health than addressing the serious fiscal problems they were elected to fix. It’s clear some legislators believe a concerted assault on women’s reproductive health will win them votes in 2012. However, Texas voters, deeply impacted by the state’s fiscal woes, will remember which members were more concerned about pandering to a narrow, extreme base than giving them the relief they desperately need. I urge you to vote no on HB 16 and send a message that you are serious about addressing the true emergencies facing our great state.

[Your name]

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