King Op-Ed: In Support of Life

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Our founding fathers realized that “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness” were among the most essential of the unalienable rights bestowed upon us by our Creator. Over the past several weeks a debate has been raging in Austin over the first and greatest of these enumerated rights: life. Governor Perry has now called the legislature back into a second special legislative session to pass a bill that would help protect innocent lives, but will also go a long way toward protecting women’s health.

I am one of four joint-authors on HB 2, which has four main components: it would 1) prohibit abortions in Texas after 5 months; 2) require that a doctor personally administer abortion-inducing drugs to patients; 3) require abortions be performed in ambulatory surgical centers, which have more stringent health and safety requirements than do current abortion clinics; and 4) require that doctors performing abortions in Texas have credentials for a hospital within 30 miles of where they are performing abortions. This legislation is focused on improving the standard of healthcare for women and saving lives.

The main objection of the opposition to this legislation has been that they want to be able to abort babies even after the fifth month of pregnancy, when it has been proven the unborn baby feels pain at this juncture of a pregnancy. The opposition claims to stand for women’s health, but the fact is that after 5 months abortions can be extremely dangerous to a woman’s health and even be life threatening. Additionally, when polled, 62% of Texans say that they support banning abortions after 5 months.

I am happy to report that we passed HB 2 out of the House of Representatives yesterday. It now moves to the Senate for consideration. Should this legislation pass, thousands of lives a year will be saved in Texas, and at the same time the standard of care for women who decide to receive an abortion will improve greatly.

I look forward to continuing to stand up with my colleagues in the legislature to defend the life of the precious and defenseless unborn.

State Representative Phil King represents Parker and Wise counties in the Texas House of Representatives.