Niki GriswoldAustin American-Statesman
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With abortion now illegal in Texas in nearly all circumstances, Democratic lawmakers are renewing their push to pass legislation expanding access to reproductive health care and increasing support for family planning services.
But the bills, which range from ending state taxes on diapers and feminine hygiene products to requiring insurance providers to cover abortion services, have varying levels of bipartisan backing in the Republican-controlled Legislature.
Prominent GOP lawmakers have indicated support for expanding Medicaid coverage for new moms to 12 months post-birth — a proposal that passed in the House last session but was slashed to six months in the Senate — as well as for Austin Democratic Rep. Donna Howard’s bill to end state sales taxes on diapers and feminine hygiene products.
But a bill that would repeal the state’s ban on government funds going to health care providers that offer abortion-related services, such as Planned Parenthood, as well as another bill that would require insurance providers to cover reproductive health care services including contraception, voluntary sterilization and legal abortions, are likely to face high hurdles, if not complete opposition, by Republicans in both chambers.
House committee takes up bill to exempt feminine hygiene, family care products from sales taxes
On Monday, the House Ways and Means Committee heard testimony on Howard's proposal, House Bill 300, which would end state sales taxes on feminine hygiene products and such family care products as diapers, baby wipes, baby bottles, maternity clothes and breast milk pumps.
“Twenty-three other states do not tax period products, and 21 do not tax diapers; my hope is that Texas will be added to those lists this session,” Howard told the committee Monday. “House Bill 300, or the Tax FREE (Family Relief for Everyday Essentials) Bill would give a sales tax break for hardworking Texas moms and families that will truly make a difference in their bottom lines.”
This is the fourth legislative session in which Howard has filed bills to end sales taxes on feminine hygiene products and diapers. In 2021, her bill passed out of committee but didn’t move to the full House for a vote. This year, Howard told the Ways and Means Committee she expanded the bill to include exemptions for additional maternity care products, based on a recommendation from House Speaker Dade Phelan’s office to combine the many bills that had been filed on the topic into one to cover all family care needs.
“We can all picture a new family in our district who needs to purchase these items; many will likely end up at the local Walmart,” Howard said. “Imagine that they purchased a month of diapers, a month of wipes, at least one week’s worth of baby bottles, a week’s worth of pads if they’re menstruating, a couple of nursing bras to easily breastfeed or pump, a week’s worth of maternity clothes, an inexpensive portable breast pump so they can pump at work if they need to … they would roughly spend $350 before taxes, and pay an additional $29 in sales taxes.
"That may not seem like a lot of money to some, but for the 9 million Texans that live below the poverty line … that represents a couple days of food for the new parents, a tank of gas, or a portion of the many other expenses that they may have.”
According to the Texas Diaper Bank, a monthly supply of diapers for one child can cost around $125, and 1 in 3 Texas families is not able to afford an adequate supply of diapers.
Emily Adams, a mother and the vice chair of the Austin Diaper Bank board of directors, testified before the committee that sales taxes on diapers has an additional economic impact beyond the immediate financial burden on low-income families.
“Without diapers, children cannot attend child care; even free and subsidized care requires the provision of diapers,” Adams said. If families are not able to afford diapers, "not only are children missing out on critical early learning experiences and academic and social development, but parents and caregivers are forced to drop out of the workforce resulting in a loss of wages.”
Other witnesses testified that exempting feminine hygiene and family care products from sales taxes would have additional economic and educational impacts. They argued that the Tax FREE bill would help lower instances of girls missing school because they can't afford feminine care products, and help reduce the number of mothers who have to miss work because they can't afford diapers, breast pumps or work-appropriate maternity clothes that allow for breast pumping.
In her testimony before the committee, Howard also said there are clear health benefits to making diapers and feminine care products more financially accessible, primarily reducing the number of instances of toxic shock syndrome or other health conditions that can result from rationing or reusing tampons or diapers.
Howard’s bill and witness testimony appeared to be well-received by Democratic and Republican committee members Tuesday.
When asked by the American-Statesman how she feels about the bill’s odds of making it to the governor’s desk, Howard said she is “more optimistic than I’ve ever been.”
Phelan, the House speaker, included Howard’s HB 300 on his list of legislative priorities this session. Although the speaker’s priorities are typically limited to bill numbers one through 20, Howard's bill is one of two with high bill numbers that the speaker has specifically designated as critical to pass
Last summer, both Gov. Greg Abbott and Sen. Joan Huffman, R-Houston, also signaled their support for ending sales taxes on menstrual products. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who presides over the Senate, has not made his position on the issue clear.
In a phone interview with the Statesman on Tuesday, John Seago, president of Texas Right to Life, an anti-abortion nonprofit that played a major role in passing the state’s abortion ban, said that though HB 300 is not one of the group's priorities this session, it supports the bill.
“Texas Right to Life wants Texas to be pro-life and not just abortion-free, and so there are things that we can do that will have a real-life impact on Texans, specifically expecting and parenting mothers, we're looking at how can we remove barriers for them … (this bill) definitely is a good step forward,” Seago said.
After the hearing, the committee left the bill pending, and it could come up for a vote in the coming weeks.
Democratic senators want to repeal ban on funds for Planned Parenthood
While HB 300 seemingly has drawn support from both parties, Senate Bill 1314, which would repeal previous legislation that beginning in 2011 largely banned state funds from going to Planned Parenthood and other reproductive health care or family planning service providers that offer abortion care, is likely to prove more divisive.
On Monday, Sen. Sarah Eckhardt, D-Austin, along with former Democratic state Sen. Wendy Davis and Planned Parenthood representatives, held a news conference to promote SB 1314, which was filed last week by a group of eight Democratic senators.
In 2019, the Legislature passed a bill that also banned local governments from providing taxpayer money to such clinics and its affiliates.
“Over the last decade, access to preventative and life-saving health care in Texas has been systematically chipped away at and politically attacked as trusted community health care providers like Planned Parenthood have been cut off from all state and local funding,” said Davis, who is well known for her 2013 filibuster in the Texas Senate to block anti-abortion legislation and is now a senior adviser for Planned Parenthood Texas Votes.
“We already know what happens when politicians dismantle sexual and reproductive health services – people suffer, especially communities of color who already struggle to get access to the health care they need,” she said.
Grumet: Paxton seeks to crush Planned Parenthood's ability to provide nonabortion care
Davis and Eckhardt also pointed to the 2011 session in which lawmakers slashed funding for family planning services from $111 million to $37.9 million for a two-year period, resulting in the closure of more than 80 women’s health clinics, a third of which were Planned Parenthood health centers.
“The state's claim of protecting life is a tragic lie," Eckhardt said. "Texas policies on women's health, including the policy to deny women access to the most qualified health care providers, has resulted in devastating consequences for women, children and their families."
Eckhardt quoted directly from the state’s Maternal Morbidity and Review Committee report released in December, which found that 90% of the maternal deaths in 2019 reviewed by the committee were preventable, and disproportionately affected Black women. The committee analyzed the state’s high maternal mortality rates for its report and recommended expanding access to comprehensive health care for women during pregnancy and for one year postpartum.
“The devastating statistics we're seeing in maternal morbidity, our poverty rate, our lack of (rural) health care access, our difficulty with getting birth control, these are all issues that our Republican colleagues should care about," Eckhardt said. "And I know that on a personal level they do, but the extremist politics of the chamber is keeping them from doing what they know is the right thing."
Dr. Amna Dermish, chief operating and medical services officer for Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas, argued that SB 1314 is critical even if abortion is almost entirely illegal in Texas.
“The loss of abortion in the state of Texas has not changed what our patients need and what our communities need in terms of reproductive health,” Dermish said. “Planned Parenthood in Texas is proud to provide a broad range of reproductive health care services, including life-saving cancer screenings; birth control, treatment for UTIs; testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections; HIV testing and counseling; PrEP medication for HIV prevention; gender and hormone therapies; and other essential health care services.”
Texas Right to Life, however, is unequivocally opposed to the bill, Seago said, adding that Planned Parenthood is still an organization that advocates for repealing anti-abortion legislation.
“It is completely inappropriate to send them taxpayer funds when the state of Texas has decided we're not going to violate the right to life with children, and we're not going to spend taxpayer dollars on organizations that advocate for that,” Seago said.
Eckhardt said she has not yet heard of any Republicans in the Senate who might back the bill, and the House and Senate chiefs have in the past supported the ban.
Phelan, R-Beaumont, was a co-sponsor of the 2019 bill that expanded the state’s ban on government funding for Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers to apply to local governments, and he voted to pass the measure. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick presided over the Senate when that chamber passed the bill.
SB 1314 is guaranteed to be dead on arrival without any Republican support.
“Irrespective of what the political probabilities are, the reality (of the state’s maternal mortality and health care crisis) requires us to continue trying to influence both their hearts and minds to serve Texans,” Eckhardt said.
'Rosie’s Law' would require insurance companies to cover reproductive health care, abortion
Eckhardt also joined Rep. Sheryl Cole, D-Austin, on Monday to promote HB 3586, and its corresponding SB 1623, both of which would require Medicaid and all private and federal health insurance providers to fully cover legal abortions, as well as cover all FDA-approved contraceptive services, including voluntary sterilization, emergency contraception and birth control device insertion and removal.
The bills are called “Rosie’s Law” in honor of Rosie Jiménez, a 27-year-old woman from McAllen who died due to an unsafe abortion in 1977 after Medicaid wouldn’t cover the procedure at a health clinic.
Eckhardt and Cole were joined by representatives from three abortion funds to advocate for lawmakers to pass Rosie’s Law at a news conference Monday.
“While there is a near total ban on abortion services in Texas, still there is a subset of legal abortions when the health of the mother is threatened and for that all insurance including Medicaid should cover that service,” Eckhardt said. “But in addition, every insurer including Medicaid should cover the full toolbox for contraceptive services, including sterilization services voluntarily pursued. Forced pregnancy by the state is an important violation of personal autonomy and we will not stand for it.
“I had two kids in my 30s after completing my education, and after marrying a man who is a great father. I was able to manage my life as a parent and as a working person and contribute to my family and my community. Every Texan should have this right no matter who they are, how much they earn, how they are insured or where they live.”
"Rosie's Law" is expected to face opposition from Republicans in both chambers.
“Abortion is an act of injustice … and that cannot be subsidized by taxpayer funding,” Seago said. “We shouldn't require insurance companies to cover that. This is a policy that the Legislature debated and passed several sessions ago. We think that Texas has better things to offer women and their children than abortion, and so this is definitely not the direction our state needs to go.”
Medicaid coverage extension for new moms on good ground
A Democratic priority this session that does have bipartisan support is expanding Medicaid coverage for new mothers to 12 months post-birth, an initiative that was passed in the House in the last legislative session but was slashed to 6 months in the Senate.
Phelan this session has committed to reviving the effort to extend Medicaid eligibility for new moms to a full year, and made it one of his legislative priorities.
“It is essential that the Texas House makes meaningful progress this year on better supporting mothers and children in the state — and that starts with extending health coverage for new moms to a full year,” Phelan said in a statement in February.
Gov. Greg Abbott also has signaled approval for the coverage extension and stated his support for it in his budget overview released to lawmakers last month. But whether Patrick agrees with the speaker and governor remains to be seen.
Democrats also have filed bills to clarify or expand the exceptions to the state’s abortion ban and increase access to contraception, while Republicans are seeking to restrict access to medication abortions and punish companies that help fund employee travel out of state to receive an abortion.
