While Texas Democrat politicians are urging the public to do as much as possible to “save lives” from the Chinese coronavirus, they’re also busy trying to use tax dollars to take lives.

On Tuesday, State Rep. Sheryl Cole (D–Austin) and State Sen. Sarah Eckhardt (D–Austin) filed legislation to force citizens to fund the killing of children.

The proposed law would force Medicaid—a publicly funded program—to pay for abortions and would allow private insurance companies to offer to cover the cost of killing a baby in their standard health insurance plans.

If passed, the law—listed as one of Eckhardt’s “legislative priorities” for the year—would remove existing state protections for kids and potentially clash with federal law.

It opposes the U.S. Congress’ Hyde Amendment from 1976, which banned federal public dollars from paying for abortions through Medicaid, and the Texas Legislature’s House Bill 214 from 2017 that stopped insurance companies from including abortions in their healthcare plans (requiring women to purchase separate insurance if they wanted to kill their child).

The proposed bill, dubbed “Rosie’s Law” and already supported by several groups in the abortion industry, was the first of its kind to be filed in the history of the Texas Senate.

Eckhardt and Cole’s legislation also comes amid a national debate over the Hyde Amendment. On Tuesday, 200 U.S. House Republicans signed a letter pledging to protect it, as Democrats politicians such as Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren have recently called for it to be repealed.

Regardless, the two Texas Democrat lawmakers celebrated their new proposal to kill more people.

“A lot of folks don’t know that you aren’t able to access abortion care using your private insurance,” said Rep. Cole in a Zoom press conference. “So, this year, we are really trying to use Rosie’s Law to assist everyone and having coverage of abortion clear whether it’s private care through their own insurance or public insurance through Medicaid.”

“I’m proud to carry Rosie’s Law, an important first step towards restoring Texans’ right to access life-saving care,” said Sen. Eckhardt in a press release on Tuesday.

Ironically and horrifically, the abortion “care” is anything but “life-saving” for the child. Just in Texas, nearly 56,000 children were murdered by abortion in 2019, and abortion was the leading cause of death in the state.

Furthermore, just days prior to Eckhardt’s comments, she posted on Facebook and attacked state officials for not doing enough to stop the coronavirus, saying local officials must work even harder to “save as many lives as possible.”

Apparently, however, that doesn’t include the lives being newly born.

John Seago, the legislative director for nonprofit Texas Right to Life, told Texas Scorecard the proposed law is just another way for the abortion industry to make it easier to put more children to death.

“While incredible, it is not surprising that the abortion industry is not simply content with murdering tens of thousands of innocent preborn children each year, but they are advocating for Texans to pay for the murder through tax dollars and insurance premiums. The majority of Texans do not simply oppose this abortion funding bill, but are demanding that their elected officials pass bold pro-life legislation that bans elective abortions and saves innocent human lives this session.”

Jacob Asmussen

Jacob Asmussen is a Senior Journalist for Texas Scorecard. He attended the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor and in 2017 earned a double major in public relations and piano performance.

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