Austin, TX – Governor Abbott is clearly using his special session agenda to prove to his base that he is more extreme than his primary challengers. After failing to address the energy grid, the high uninsured rate of Texans, or the maternal mortality crisis in Texas he announced a special session to address emergency items. Despite successfully creating a bounty on Texans who have abortions during the regular session, Governor Abbott has chosen his emergency items are to attack trans kids, suppress voting rights, and criminalize doctors who provide medication abortion in accordance with the best evidence, rather than anti-abortion lies. As a result, the most marginalized Texans are caught in the cross-hairs.
Instead of validating a sham hearing where only extreme anti-abortion propaganda are heard, abortion advocates are recording their testimony and sharing it online, lifting up the voices of Texans who need and provide abortion care, and telling the truth about the positive effects of receiving compassionate abortion care on Texans lives.
Avow Executive Director Aimee Arrambide issued the following statement:
“The bad faith of the anti-abortion extremists is on full display when they repeal requirements that they said were crucial for health and safety only 8 years ago. We are deeply disturbed that their penchant for lying about abortion care and ignoring facts now pervades other areas of crucial policy-making including the big lie about voter fraud, healthcare for transgender Texans, and the functioning of the state’s electric grid.
We refuse to be a punching bag for the anti-abortion lobby and extremist legislators who are willing to ignore science for primary votes. We refuse to validate Abbott’s lies that this special session was called to help Texans, instead of harming them with anti-voter, anti-trans, and more anti-abortion legislation. We refuse to subject ourselves to another toxic anti-abortion hearing where in the past legislators have broken glass tabletops and yelled at our interns to shut our voices down. Today, we’re taking our voices to where they will be heard and respected because #TXDeservesBetter.”
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