Bill Hearing Yesterday

Phil Sevilla

Friends,

It was as a challenging day at the capitol yesterday in the Senate chambers where a number of hearings were being conducted by the Senate State Affairs Committee.
Hearings started at 9 AM but the pro-life bill sponsored by Donna Campbell, SB22, to block taxpayer funds from reaching Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers’ pockets,
wasn’t heard until 4:30 PM. It was a long day at the capitol to testify for two minutes.

To make things worse, the SB 22 hearing was transferred to a tiny meeting room which was jammed wall to wall, around 60 people. Some of you are aware that the State Affairs Committee
is one of the most powerful committees in both the Senate and House of Representatives. Speaker Joe Straus’ would send pro-life bills to crony/henchman Byron Cook, Chair of the House State Affairs Committee to kill pro-life and pro-family bills.

The majority of Senate State Affairs Committee members are strongly pro-life Christians. That’s what I witnessed at the hearing which buttressed my confidence in the conservative leadership in Austin: The chairman is Joan Huffman who is ok … don’t know much about her; the vice chair is a great friend of the pro-life movement, Sen. Bryan Hughes, former House Rep. The members include other conservative giants, Jane Nelson and Bob Hall. Democrats Judith Zaffirini and Eddie Lucio are members and were present. As far as I know Zaffirini is pro-abortion. Lucio votes for the right to life but he supports some of the worst pro-abortion Democrats like Leticia Van de Putte and Wendy Davis. I guess Democrats can’t help themselves. They are fiercely loyal to their party. I’ve heard Lucio gush over extreme liberal Democrats like Van de Putte and Wendy Davis, like he’s apologizing for voting pro-life as if it’s a ball and chain around his neck because he’s Catholic. He did it again yesterday going on and on expressing his admiration for Wendy Davis. Quite sickening.

The overwhelming majority of the testimonies from folks who stayed and hung in there all day were in support of the pro-life SB22 bill. The hearing wasn’t long because quite a few folks who signed up to testify in the morning left after waiting the whole day!

I’m attaching my (3) minute testimony that had to be compressed to the required (2) minute time limit we were given. It was ridiculous, considering there weren’t many testifying, to limit each to 2 minutes and Chairman Huffman decided to wait to hear this bill at the end of the day. Some courtesy and respect for those who waiting patiently all day would have been appropriate. I will send her and Hughes a note. But that’s the way Huffman conducted the meeting and she wouldn’t let you finish if you ran past the allotted time.

The comments from the committee members present showed strong support for the Campbell bill. Bryan Hughes, Bob Hall, Jane Nelson spoke out indicating their strong commitment to pro-life. There were around 20 folks who testified and many more who registered were scheduled to but did not hang around. I only recall three who spoke up against the bill. Two notable ones were a college professor and Wendy Davis who was one of the last to speak after me. Yes, that Wendy Davis. The college professor testified that his “studies” showed that eliminating funding to abortion providers like Planned Parenthood would hurt women. Most of us groaned. Bob Hall challenged him aggressively and asked if he was speaking as an individual or for an organization. He did not get a direct answer.

Wendy Davis (former State Senator) is looking older. She used her time to say what a wonderful experience it was to have Planned Parenthood available to her to abort her first child when she was 18 so she could finish college and go on to a successful career as a lawyer and politician. She’s not what we’d call a model for young American women, isn’t she? She decried how defunding abortion providers would deprive women of health care and how abortion providers had to shut their doors after the major omnibus pro-life legislation was passed a few years ago. Not once did she acknowledge the rights and the humanity of the baby with a separate heartbeat in his mother’s womb seeking nourishment and a chance to be born. Bob Hall responded for all of us by inquiring how can abortion be considered “health care” when its purpose is not to save lives or cure. She didn’t really answer that directly. She didn’t hang around after she spoke. I took a photo of her heading out. See below. I left soon after and saw her and the “professor” heading out the building together. They obviously knew each other and were, I suspect, “commissioned” by ad organization like Planned Parenthood to attend and testify for “women’s rights”.

It was a good opportunity to represent the pro-life cause for San Antonio at the state capitol for such a crucial issue to ensure our state remains pro-life forever and that it never descends to the barbarous levels of a state like New York which has now legalized infanticide. There were a few others from San Antonio who testified as well.

There are other pro-life legislative hearings coming up with regards to protecting babies suspected of disabilities from late term abortions; conscience protections for healthcare professionals; repealing the 10 day limit in the state Advanced Directives Act which frees hospitals after 10 days to withdraw all treatment if a physician signs a DNR which means even basic life-sustaining necessities like water and nutrition are removed starving and dehydrating the patient, resulting in a inhumane death like Terri Schiavo experienced. We’re talking about passive euthanasia.

If you didn’t make the hearing yesterday due to conflicts, I hope you can spend some time in the near future to speak out in upcoming pro-life hearings for those who have no voice. What is more critical today in our nation, in our state than defending the sanctity of life at all stages in this culture of death we’re living in today?

Blessings,

Phil Sevilla