Texas life-impacting bills update

www.TexasAllianceforLife.org has an update on the pro-life and anti-free-speech pro-Planned-Parenthood bills in the Texas legislature:

Here's the deal -- almost nothing has been decided or passed. Everything we've worked so hard for -- bills that can potentially save hundreds or thousands of unborn children and their mothers from the tragedy of abortion -- are still up in the air.

Now for the disturbing details:

• Choose Life License Plate -- We've had different bills passed in each house, but that's not enough to get the bill to the Governor's desk for him to sign. SB 1098, the Choose Life bill by Sen. John Carona, passed in the Senate on May 1, and HB 300 passed with a Choose Life amendment by Reps. Carl Isett, Larry Phillips, and Will Hartnett. But we need to have the same bill pass both houses otherwise we will end up with nothing. The next few days will be critical.
• Ultrasound Bill -- The Senate passed SB 182 more than two weeks ago, but it is languishing in the House while the clock ticks away. This bill needs a fresh kick of momentum to get it scheduled for floor debate. If we are not successful very soon, this bill may die.
• De-Funding Planned Parenthood -- This terrible organization, which was found to be performing illegal abortions in four unlicensed abortion facilities in San Antonio, gets tens of millions of our tax dollars every year in Texas, and their lobbyists are hard at work to get even more. The budget bill, SB 1, is under negotiations, and we are trying to decrease Planned Parenthood's enormous piece of the public pie.

• Adult Stem Cell Consortium -- The best way to prevent our tax dollars from being used to destroy human embryos for embryonic stem cell research is to promote the far more effective and ethical alternative, adult stem cell research and treatments. Sen. Jane Nelson has an excellent bill to do exactly that, SB 73. And Texas Alliance for Life has created several impressive short videos to promote SB 73 that you will want to see. Click here: http://texasallianceforlife.org/Issues.aspx?str=StemCells. This is about putting "Patients First." We hope for a Senate vote as early as Wednesday; then we have a hard fight in the House.
• Defending Free Speech of Churches and Citizens' Groups -- On Friday, we really took it on the chin when the House passed HB 2511 by Rep. Todd Smith. This dangerous bill would significantly change Texas law so that a newsletter or bulletin reporting on candidates' stands on issues important to the congregation or to the public could be a violation of this law, even if the newsletter or bulletin did not explicitly advocate for the election or defeat of any candidate! A violation of HB 2511 could subject the church or organization to criminal prosecution and civil lawsuits. Hopefully, we can get this bill stopped in the Texas Senate, but I am not sure.