2019 NARAL Pro-Choice Texas Legislative Scorecard NARAL Pro-Choice Texas' We tracked all of the votes on abortion-related legislation and mission is to develop and amendments in each chamber of the Texas Legislature and sustain a constituency that evaluated them based on our values and policy goals of ensuring uses the political process that once a person has decided to have an abortion, they can get the healthcare they need in their community without shame or stigma. to guarantee every Texan the right to make personal All of the votes each member cast were converted into a percentage reproductive health based on the votes they took. If a member was absent when a vote decisions and to guarantee was taken, it was not counted toward their final score. access to the full range of We also want to highlight members who took extra eorts to support options, including abortion rights and access by authoring bills or amendments. Those preventing unintended members are indicated with a on the scorecard. pregnancy, bearing healthy children, and accessing There were also members who acted especially atrociously and with dangerous disregard for the facts and women’s health. They can be legal abortion. found in the Burn Book, which includes (unsurprisingly) notoriously vomit-inducing Sen. Jane Nelson and more. To find out who represents you in the Texas House of Representatives and the Texas Senate, go to wrm.capitol.texas.gov/home www.prochoicetexas.org REPRESENTATIVE JEFF LEACH Oh Jeexcuse us, Chairman Jewhere to begin… you started the session with such promise, resigning from the Freedumb Freedom (unless you have a uterus) Caucus, but things went downhill from there. You filed the most blatantly political bill of the session, which will have no eect on how doctors practice medicine, will protect zero babies, and will not provide healthcare to a single child. You then shed crocodile tears about how you were forced to file this bill; which does nothing. To make matters worse, you set it for hearing at 8am on the Monday after Spring Break without confirming that all the members of your party on the committee who were needed to make quorum could attend. THEY COULDN’T. Needing to delay the beginning of the hearing, you oered to buy (noted anti-gay chicken chain) Chick-fil-A for everyone, including your gay commitee membernot very kind. If that rookie chairman mistake wasn’t bad enough, you also distributed the wrong version of a committee substitute and gave no notice to committee members when it was replaced with a new one, leading to incredible confusion among members of your committee, the bill author, and witnesses. Of course the on the sundae that was your committee chairmanship was setting a bill for hearing that would make abortion a capital crime potentially punishable by death when you had no intention of voting it out of commitee. This subjected your committee and the public to hours of testimony that often strayed far from the topic of the bill. When our intern testified in opposition to the bill, you accused her of laughing during the hearing, but she had been in the overflow room, and was not the person who was laughing. You then proceeded to ask baseless and inflammatory questions about later abortion care. We’d use this space to further set the record straight, but Texas Monthly beat us to it:: you’re the worst. REPRESENTATIVE MATT KRAUSE One of the remaining “Bad Matts,” he never met a dishonest argument or rhetorical question based on a false premise he didn’t like. He asked harrassing and irrelevant questions on abortion whenever he got a chance and tag teamed with Leach to harass and bully our intern. He proposed the budget amendment to direct more money to fake clinics while insisting they were accountable and had appropriate oversight because they reported some data. REPRESENTATIVE GIOVANNI CAPRIGLIONE Capriglione filed two bills banning abortion. When we had the temerity to testify against one in commitee, he said the quiet part out loud and said we supported killing babies. REPRESENTATIVE CANDY NOBLE Noble filed a bill targeting Planned Parenthood that would prohibit local governments from partnering with abortion providers to provide any healthcare or education. A brave move for a freshman legislatorunfortunately she was not brave enough to debate the merits of her bill or amendments oered to it. Not exactly showing the courage of her convictions. REPRESENTATIVE TONY TINDERHOLT Tinderholt once again filed his bill to make abortion punishable by death so that people will take more “personal responsibility.” SENATOR KELLY HANCOCK Sen. Hancock filed the cruelest bill of the session, which would have removed the ability for Texans with a pregnancy that was not compatible with life to have a medically indicated non-elective abortion. This is a policy proposal so noxious that it was voted down by the Texas House when it was oered as an amendment in 2017. SENATOR EDDIE LUCIO JR. In addition to being anti-abortion, Sen. Lucio subjects the public to patronizing, patriarchal, and often misinformed speeches about abortion and healthcare. This session he showed his ignorance by seeking to forbid doctors from providing state-mandated SENATOR ANGELA PAXTON anti-abortion information over the phone, In addition to filing a bill that would allow her something rarely done since 2011 when indicted husband AG Ken Paxton to issue doctors were also forced to start perfoming exemptions to the securites fraud law he was unnecessary state-mandated sonograms. indicted for, she filed a bill that would require anyone seeking an abortion to get non-medical coercive counseling in addition to the state-mandated misinformation doctors are already required to provide. We’re sure it is just a coincidence there is a contractor in her district ready to do the job and take the government handout to advance their anti-abortion agenda.. SENATOR JANE NELSON Sen. Nelson was the longest-serving chair of the Senate Health and Human Services committee and now chairs the Senate Finance committee. She was also one of the architects of dismantling the women’s health and family planning safety nets in Texas, which provided contraception and cancer screenings. She was the instigator in getting a respected researcher at the state health department removed because the data showed her programs served fewer patients, so it should not have been a surprise when she aggressively questioned another researcher from UT about the source of his data. The source of the data was the state. It’s irresponsible for someone in a position as important as the chair of the Senate Finance committee to be so actively ignorant of the harmful outcomes of the policy and budget choices they have made. SENATOR DONNA CAMPBELL, MD Known far and wide as the “Bad Donna,” she sneered her way through another session while using her position as a senator to deny Texans healthcare and prevent local governments from taking up the slack where the state with the highest rate of uninsured has failed. Bestie Frenemy Mean Girl * The Speaker of the House traditionally does not vote on legislation. As speaker, State Representatives Rep Bonnen did vote on any of the bills and amendment that we scored. REPRESENTATIVE SCORE REPRESENTATIVE SCORE Gary VanDeaver (R), HD-1 0% Ryan Guillen (D), HD-31 14% Dan Flynn (R), HD-2 0% Todd Ames Hunter (R), HD-32 0% Cecil Bell Jr. (R), HD-3 0% Justin Holland (R), HD-33 0% Keith Bell (R), HD-4 0% Abel Herrero (D), HD-34 83% Cole Hefner (R), HD-5 0% Oscar Longoria (D), HD-35 88% Matt Schaefer (R), HD-6 0% Sergio Muñoz Jr. (D), HD-36 85% Jay Dean (R), HD-7 0% Alex Dominguez (D), HD-37 100% Cody Harris (R), HD-8 0% Eddie Lucio III (D), HD-38 88% Chris Paddie (R), HD-9 0% Armando Martínez (D), HD-39 93% John Wray (R), HD-10 0% Terry Canales (D), HD-40 85% Travis Clardy (R), HD-11 4% Bobby Guerra (D), HD-41 100% Kyle Kacal (R), HD-12 0% Richard Peña Raymond (D), HD-42 85% Ben Leman (R), HD-13 0% JM Lozano (R), HD-43 0% John Raney (R), HD-14 0% John Kuempel (R), HD-44 0% Steve Toth (R), HD-15 0% Erin Zwiener (D), HD-45 100% Will Metcalf (R), HD-16 0% Sheryl Cole (D), HD-46 100% John Cyrier (R), HD-17 0% Vikki Goodwin (D), HD-47 100% Ernest Bailes (R), HD-18 0% Donna Howard (D), HD-48 100% James White (R), HD-19 0% Gina Hinojosa (D), HD-49 100% Terry Wilson (R), HD-20 0% Celia Israel (D), HD-50 100% Dade Phelan (R), HD-21 0% Eddie Rodriguez (D), HD-51 100% Joe Deshotel (D), HD-22 92% James Talarico (D), HD-52 100% Mayes Middleton (R), HD-23 0% Andrew Murr (R), HD-53 0% Greg Bonnen (R), HD-24 0% Brad Buckley (R), HD-54 0% Dennis Bonnen (R), HD-25 * Hugh Shine (R), HD-55 0% DF “Rick” Miller (R), HD-26 0% Charles “Doc” Anderson (R), HD-56 0% Ron Reynolds (D), HD-27 100% Trent Ashby (R), HD-57 0% John Zerwas (R), HD-28 0% DeWayne Burns (R), HD-58 0% Ed Thompson (R), HD-29 0% JD Sheeld (R), HD-59 0% Geanie Morrison (R), HD-30 0% Mike Lang (R), HD-60 0% Bestie Frenemy Mean Girl State Representatives REPRESENTATIVE SCORE REPRESENTATIVE SCORE Phil King (R), HD-61 0% Stephanie Klick (R), HD-91 0% Reggie Smith (R), HD-62 0% Jonathan Stickland (R), HD-92 0% Tan Parker (R), HD-63 0% Matt Krause (R), HD-93 0% Lynn Stucky (R), HD-64 0% Tony Tinderholt (R), HD-94 0% Michelle Beckley (D), HD-65 100% Nicole Collier (D), HD-95 100% Matt Shaheen (R), HD-66 0% Bill Zedler (R), HD-96 0% Je Leach (R), HD-67 0% Craig Goldman (R), HD-97 7% Drew Springer Jr.