In politics, there is ALWAYS a spin.

That’s one of the reasons many people hate politics. No one likes being lied to or manipulated.

But it happens all the time in Austin and D.C. and everywhere in between. That’s why at AATX we try to cut through the spin and help you understand what’s really going on.

It happened just last week when Texas Speaker of the House, Dade Phelan assigned our bill, HB 2709 to a committee with a Democrat Planned Parenthood Legislative Champion as chairman 😲

Many of you called Speaker Phelan’s office urging him to re-assign the bill to a Republican-led committee.

But you reported that the responses from Speaker Phelan’s office were confusing and made it sound like there is nothing he can do. 🤷

That just isn’t true.

Let’s un-spin what you may have heard from Speaker Phelan’s office about HB 2709.

✅ HB 2709 has already been assigned to a committee.

True. Phelan assigned it to a committee with a Democrat chair who is celebrated by Planned Parenthood as one of their Legislative Champions. We want the bill re-assigned to a committee with a Republican chair.

❌ HB 2709 cannot be re-assigned to a different committee.

False. Dade Phelan has the authority to re-assign this bill to a different committee if he chooses.

❌ HB 2709 must be assigned to the Criminal Jurisprudence committee because of the content of the bill.

False. The Speaker of the House has broad discretion on committee assignments. In fact, abolition bills have been filed in the Texas House every session since 2017 and have been assigned to different committees every time: State Affairs (2017), Judiciary & Civil Jurisprudence (2019), Public Health (2021), and now Criminal Jurisprudence (2023). Speaker Phelan himself assigned the 2021 equal protection bill to a different committee. He had authority to assign HB 2709 to a different committee initially and he has ample authority now to re-assign it to a different committee.

❓The Criminal Jurisprudence committee has a Republican majority.

True, but irrelevant. The committee members have no authority in whether the bill gets a committee hearing. The committee chair alone decides whether the bill gets a hearing. And with the current committee assignment, the chair is Joe Moody, a Democrat who Planned Parenthood touts as a Legislative Champion for “reproductive rights.”

❓The committee chair cannot kill HB 2709 without justification even if he’s a Democrat.

True...sort of. But, his justification can just be that he doesn’t like the bill and he doesn’t have to disclose to the public his justification.

Take Action

Many of you responded to our Action Alert and called Speaker Phelan’s office to urge him to re-assign the bill to another committee with a Republican chair instead.

THANK YOU for making your voices heard.

If you didn’t call yet (or want to call back now that you understand their spin) please do so TODAY.

Speaker Dade Phelan needs to know that the nearly 20,000 babies whose lives are still on the line annually in Texas, are not pawns in a political game. They are human beings created in the image of God and they need the equal protection of the law NOW.

Pro-Life words are definitely not enough.

Speaker Phelan needs to ACT TODAY and re-assign HB 2709 to a committee with a Republican chair who will ensure that equal protection for innocent babies actually gets a hearing

• Ask him to re-refer HB 2709 to a different committee that has a Republican chair.
  
  
• Urge him to honor the commands of God and follow the Golden Rule toward babies.
  
  
• Tell him you want him to follow the Priorities of his own party instead of putting the lives of innocent children in the hands of a Planned Parenthood champion.

The lives of 50+ babies who are still being legally murdered every single day in Texas are on the line right now.

Thank you for standing with us until every single one of them is equally protected by law.

For life, for justice, and for the glory of God,

Bradley Pierce
President
Abolish Abortion Texas
Foundation to Abolish Abortion