Committee approves criminal offense for coerced chemical abortion by fraud after survivor testimony

The House Judiciary Committee voted to advance House Bill 1551, as amended, creating the offense of coerced criminal abortion by means of fraud. Under the amendment approved by the committee, a person who knowingly administers or gives an abortion-inducing drug to a pregnant woman without her knowledge or consent, with the purpose of causing an abortion, would commit a class B felony (five to 20 years in prison).

Sponsor Representative Jimmy Gazzaway said the measure was modeled in part on a Louisiana statute and that the amendment tightened definitions and added exclusions for certain medical uses. He and witnesses emphasized that the bill targets cases where abortion-inducing drugs are administered by fraud, not routine medical treatments.

Survivor Catherine Presley Herring testified about a series of assaults she said were intended to induce abortion; she described seven incidents in which she says her then-husband adulterated drinks and that one sample later tested positive for misoprostol. She said she sought emergency care and used progesterone to try to preserve the pregnancy; she described long-term consequences for her child and said prosecutors in Texas ultimately obtained a plea that she criticized as insufficient.

Medical witness Dr. Sherry Amaya, a board-certified obstetrician-gynecologist, testified that several widely available drugs—misoprostol and mifepristone among them—are capable of inducing abortion, that some are not controlled substances and can be obtained online, and that chemical abortion carries medical risks including heavy bleeding and infection. Witness Tony Rose (National Association of Christian Lawmakers) and others urged passage; no committee witness opposed the bill during the recorded testimony.

Representative Gazzaway closed and moved the do-pass-as-amended motion; the committee approved the bill by voice vote.