AUSTIN, Texas (LifeSiteNews) – Republican Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas signed a sweeping election integrity law on Tuesday, ending a months-long battle against Democratic lawmakers seeking to block the bill’s passage.
Senate Bill 1 requires that voters casting mail-in ballots provide some form of identification, from a driver’s license to a bank statement. The bill also bans 24-hour voting, imposes restrictions on drive-thru voting and ballot harvesting, and prohibits election officials from sending unsolicited mail-in ballot applications, as happened in major Texas cities such as Houston during the 2020 election. Ballot harvesting and unsolicited ballot applications can lead to felony charges and jail time under the law.
Other provisions in S.B. 1, titled the Election Integrity Protection Act of 2021, include monthly voter roll checks and new protections for poll watchers, including the right to observe transfers of election materials and the closing of polling places, according to Fox News.
“Senate Bill 1 creates uniform statewide voting hours, maintains and expands voting access for registered voters that need assistance, prohibits drive-through voting, and enhances transparency by authorizing poll watchers to observe more aspects of the election process,” read a statement from Gov. Abbott’s office on Tuesday.
“Election integrity is now law in the state of Texas,” Abbott said at a bill-signing ceremony for S.B. 1 in Tyler yesterday. “One thing that all Texas can agree and that is that we must have trust and confidence in our elections.”
“One area that makes it harder to cheat concerns mail-in ballots,” Abbott added. “This is an area where both Democrats and Republicans agree has been the easiest way to cheat in the election process. The law that I’m about to sign fixes that problem.”
The Texas legislature last week passed S.B. 1 during the second special legislative session that Abbott called this year, following months of roadblocks by Democrats.
Dozens of Texas House Democrats had fled the state in June to prevent passage of the election bill during Abbott’s first special session, before returning in August after apparently infecting each other and White House and congressional staffers with COVID. The lawmakers had killed a similar bill by staging walkout in May, prompting Abbott to defund the legislature.
Texas joins at least 17 other states, including Florida, Georgia, and Arizona, that have adopted new election integrity measures in recent weeks.
Democrats sued to stop S.B. 1 almost immediately after Abbott signed it, with a lawsuit led by Democratic activist lawyer Marc Elias and filed on behalf of left-wing advocacy groups and other organizations. The challenge faces little chance of long-term success, however. In July, the Supreme Court shot down a similar suit brought by Elias against a ballot harvesting ban in Arizona, ruling that prevention of voter fraud is a “strong and entirely legitimate state interest.”
S.B. 1 comes in response to significant election issues reported in the 2020 election, especially in connection to widespread mail-in voting.
In 2019, LifePetitions launched a similar petition on behalf of Jeff Younger (the father) and his son James, asking for support and for the Texas state authorities to intervene in a unbelievable case in which the Dallas courts keep flip-flopping over which parent has parental rights and, ultimately, whether or not James must be forced to live as a girl and suffer the trauma of so-called gender "transitioning," as his mom believes he is a girl.
Incredibly, we now seem to be back at square one.
Jeff Younger currently has a gag order put on him, which prohibits him to speak out in defense of his son. But, because he has recently decided to ignore that order, to save his son from irreversible surgery, this brave Dad now faces possible arrest.
Please SIGN and SHARE this urgent petition which does two things: 1) Supports Jeff Younger (again, the Dad) in his fight to save his son, James, from so-called gender "transitioning;" and, 2) Calls on Texas' Attorney General to intervene in this case and quash the gag order against Mr. Younger.
CLICK HERE to WATCH the latest LifeSite interview with Jeff Younger. Hear about the latest developments with his son, as well as the real dangers of gender reassignment surgery and other “transititioning” methods.
Currently, even though he shares 50/50 parental rights to James, which has allowed him to stop the chemical castration of his son, Jeff’s ex-wife recently sued to have full parental rights and to "give her sole medical and psychological decision making."
Jeff is also being threatened with jail time from the gag order, which he believes was intentionally done to stop him from helping pass legislation in Texas to ban sex-change surgeries for minors.
Jeff says that the gag order "prohibits me from speaking on all manner of political topics. And I’m not even allowed to tell you in that gag order whether my son’s a boy or girl."
But Jeff is speaking out, no matter what, because of the real danger that his son is in if he undergoes "transition" surgery.
Indeed, so-called gender "transitions" present many unsafe effects, some desired, some undesired, though all dangerous for one's physical and mental health.
Puberty-blocking drugs and cross-sex hormones have not been proven safe. For example, the FDA has NOT approved Lupron and GnRH analogues for use in blocking puberty.
Risks associated with these pharmaceuticals include: low bone density, high blood pressure, weight gain, abnormal glucose tolerance, breast cancer, liver disease, thrombosis, and cardiovascular disease.
And, additional risks and potential harms include:
For Males: Stunting of penile and testicular growth, sexual dysfunction, prevention of spermatogenesis, and disruption of normal brain and bone development.
For Females: A menopause-like state, blockade of normal breast development, decreased blood flow to vagina and vulva, sexual dysfunction, thinning of vaginal epithelium, vaginal atrophy, prevention of menses/ovulation, and disruption of normal brain and bone development.
In other words, these medications can sterilize and cause medical harm to vulnerable, confused children.
And, the stunning part about this: studies show that 85% of gender confused children eventually become comfortable with the sex of their bodies.
Please SIGN and SHARE this urgent petition which supports Jeff Younger, a Texas Dad, who is fighting to prevent his son, James, from being "turned into a girl." At the same time, we appeal to Texas State Attorney General, to intervene in this case and quash the gag order against Jeff.
Thank you!
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
'Save James: Father risks arrest to save 9-year-old son from forced gender-transition': https://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/save-james-father-risks-arrest-to-save-9-year-old-son-from-forced-gender-transition
FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THE DANGERS OF PUSHING GENDER IDEOLOGY ON CHILDREN:
Many eminent psychiatrists are now speaking against the faulty notion that sex is fluid and a matter of choice. In particular, they are concerned about the welfare of children and young people in this regard.
Dr Paul McHugh, former psychiatrist-in-chief at Johns Hopkins University, who has researched the occurrence of gender dysphoria for 40 years, has stated that the notion of gender fluidity "is doing much damage to families, adolescents, and children and should be confronted as an opinion without biological foundation wherever it emerges". [See more below.]
And, the American College of Pediatricians (ACP) is definite about the promotion of transgenderism as being harmful public policy:
"Human sexuality is an objective biological binary trait: 'XY' and 'XX' are genetic markers of health – not genetic markers of a disorder. The norm for human design is to be conceived, either male or female…Conditioning children into believing that a lifetime of chemical and surgical impersonation of the opposite sex is normal and healthful is child abuse. Endorsing gender discordance as normal via public education and legal policies will confuse children and parents…” [Read more below.]
Here is what Dr Paul McHugh said on this topic: https://www.cnsnews.com/blog/michael-w-chapman/johns-hopkins-psychiatrist-transgendered-men-dont-become-women-they-become
This is the ACP statement on Gender Ideology: http://www.acpeds.org/the-college-speaks/position-statements/gender-ideology-harms-children
About the medical risks associated with medical interventions to attempt to change the sex of the body: https://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2020/01/59422/
About some of the unconscionable practices some medical professionals are engaged in:
“We have more voter fraud cases than we have ever had. That’s just a fact,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said earlier this year. “In my office we have over 500 cases waiting to go to trial. We have other investigations, over 300.”
The enactment of the S.B. 1 also comes just days after the Texas Heartbeat Act took effect, banning virtually all abortions in the Lone Star state after six weeks of pregnancy.
Other bills passed by the Texas legislature last week and currently on Gov. Abbott’s desk would outlaw distribution of abortion pills to women more than seven weeks’ pregnant and would further restrict the teaching of critical race theory, which Texas limited in June.
The governor on Tuesday called a third special legislative session to address COVID vaccine mandates by state or local governments and biological males competing in women’s college sports. The session will not cover mutilating transgender procedures for children, school mask mandates, or vaccine mandates by private businesses, according to an agenda released by Abbott.