Some Texas Republicans want to ban firms paying for abortions out of state

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With Texas poised to robotically ban abortion if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, some Republicans are already setting their sights on the subsequent goal to battle the process: companies that say they’ll assist staff get abortions exterior the state.

Fourteen Republican members of the state House of Representatives have pledged to introduce payments within the coming legislative session that will bar companies from doing enterprise in Texas in the event that they pay for abortions in states the place the process is authorized.

This would explicitly forestall firms from providing staff entry to abortion-related care via medical health insurance advantages. It would additionally expose executives to legal prosecution underneath pre-Roe anti-abortion legal guidelines the Legislature by no means repealed, the legislators say.

Their proposal highlights how the tip of abortion would lead to a brand new part in — not the tip of — the battle in Texas over the process. The lawmakers pushing for the enterprise guidelines have signaled that they plan to act aggressively within the subsequent legislative session. But it stays to be seen in the event that they’ll have the ability to get a majority on their aspect.

The members, led by Briscoe Cain, R-Deer Park, laid out their plans in a letter to Lyft CEO Logan Green that turned public on Wednesday.

Green drew the lawmakers’ consideration on April 29, when he stated on Twitter that the ride-share firm would assist pregnant residents of Oklahoma and Texas search abortion care in different states. Green additionally pledged to cowl the authorized prices of any Lyft driver sued underneath Senate Bill 8, the Texas regulation that empowers personal residents to file lawsuits towards anybody who assists within the procurement of an abortion.

“The state of Texas will take swift and decisive action if you do not immediately rescind your recently announced policy to pay for the travel expenses of women who abort their unborn children,” the letter states.

The letter additionally lays out different legislative priorities, together with permitting Texas shareholders of publicly traded corporations to sue executives for paying for abortion care, in addition to empowering district attorneys to prosecute abortion-related crimes exterior of their house counties.

Six of the 14 signers, together with Cain, are members of the far-right Texas Freedom Caucus. How a lot political help these proposals have within the Republican caucus is unclear. House Speaker Dade Phelan, R-Beaumont, declined to remark. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Gov. Greg Abbott didn’t reply.

Since the legislative session is greater than seven months away, Cain stated in an e mail that “a quickly drafted and sent letter can hardly be said to reflect the pulse of my Republican colleagues.” He was assured, nonetheless, that his concepts would discover some help within the Senate.

“Knowing that chamber and its leadership, I’m willing to bet legislation targeting this issue will be promptly filed in January,” Cain stated.

But doing so would doubtless imply concentrating on corporations that the state has wooed as potential job creators. Tesla, for occasion, introduced this month that it could pay for staff’ journey prices once they go away the state to get an abortion. Abbott celebrated the electrical automotive firm’s transfer to Austin final 12 months and this 12 months urged its CEO, Elon Musk, to transfer Twitter’s headquarters to Texas, too, if he completes his buy of the social media agency.

Republican politicians have to tread rather more rigorously on abortion politics if Roe v. Wade falls, stated Florida State University professor Mary Ziegler, who wrote a e-book on abortion regulation within the United States. Whereas up to now, lawmakers might move any quantity of abortion restrictions that have been certain to be struck down by courts, that backstop would not exist.

Ziegler stated whereas a broad conservative coalition needs to ban abortions in Texas, there’s disagreement over how aggressively to implement associated legal legal guidelines or to try to forestall pregnant residents from leaving the state for the process. Republican politicians, due to this fact, have an incentive to stay quiet on the difficulty till they will decide which course of motion is essentially the most politically prudent.

“It’s not easy to be a Republican anymore,” Ziegler stated. “Before, everyone was like, ‘Yes, let’s get rid of Roe v. Wade.’ Now, if you can do whatever you want, what is it that you want to do?”

Lyft didn’t reply to a request for remark. Several different massive corporations, together with Amazon, Uber and Starbucks, have additionally stated they might assist staff or clients search abortion care exterior of Texas. None responded to requests for remark.

Concerns from the enterprise neighborhood helped derail a push by Republican lawmakers to enact the so-called toilet invoice within the 2017 session, which might have required folks to use the amenities that corresponded with their intercourse assigned at or close to start. Moderate Speaker Joe Straus, R-San Antonio, rebuffed requests from Patrick to make the invoice a precedence.

State Rep. Donna Howard, D-Austin, stated that though Straus has since retired, she hoped a coalition of Democrats and centrist Republicans would kind to block abortion-related legal guidelines that place new restrictions on companies.

“There were opportunities for business-minded Republicans and business-minded Democrats to come together and prevent these kinds of extreme policies,” Howard stated of Straus’ tenure. “I’m hopeful that can occur once more. … We’re at a pivotal level right here of doing extreme harm that’s going to be laborious to undo.

The Texas Association of Businesses, Texas Chamber of Commerce Executives and Greater Houston Partnership both declined to remark or didn’t reply to questions concerning the abortion-restriction proposals within the Republicans’ letter.

Disclosure: The Greater Houston Partnership, Lyft and the Texas Association of Business have been monetary supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news group that’s funded partly by donations from members, foundations and company sponsors. Financial supporters play no position within the Tribune’s journalism. Find a whole listing of them right here.

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