So this is really short, and I’ve got to go to bed soon, but I haven’t seen a diary about this:
I can’t take off from work on such short notice, but I will run over on my lunch break. Please spread the word, anyone you know in the Austin area. This bill is not an Alabama-like bill (though I do wonder about amendments) , but it is pretty damn bad. From an Austin Chronicle article about it:
Senate Bill 22 by anti-choice stalwart Sen. Donna Campbell, R-New Braunfels, bars any "taxpayer resource transaction" between a city or county and an abortion provider or affiliate. A major priority for Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and groups including Texas Right to Life, the bill aims squarely at the city of Austin's $1-a-year lease agreement with Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas for the Eastside clinic space, in effect since 1973. The legislation would allow the Texas attorney general to file suit to seek an injunction to block that agreement and others like it, as well as recover attorney's fees and costs.
Legislators like Campbell chastise Austin and other cities for "subsidizing" the abortion industry with "sweetheart" deals even though no local taxpayer dollars flow to abortion care – the Lege did away with that back in 2011 – and the East Austin Planned Parenthood doesn't offer abortion care. But it does offer birth control, STI testing and treatment, pregnancy tests, HIV tests and treatments (PrEP and PEP), UTI treatments, breast and cervical cancer screenings, and other care that helps reduce unplanned pregnancy – and thus, abortion – as well as myriad other public health problems.
Aside from direct medical services such as the kind provided at the East Seventh Street clinic, SB 22 would cripple partnerships between other Texas cities and Planned Parenthood to educate residents about long-acting contraception, teen pregnancy prevention, and STI testing, to name a few. The collateral damage of the Lege's anti-abortion crusade will be felt most acutely by low-income women, often women of color – the most vulnerable and marginalized in the community, and the most in need of affordable health care.
And there’s my 3 paragraphs copied. This bill is bad. It’s not Taliban bad, like Alabama’s bill; but Campbell might be inspired by the 3 — or is it 4 now? — Taliban bills & gleefully accept amendments. To paraphrase a certain local sports team: Show up. Wear pink. Be loud.