By Longoria                                      H.B. No. 370

      75R2368 DLF-D                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to the time at which life begins.

 1-3           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

 1-4           SECTION 1.  MOMENT THAT LIFE BEGINS.  The life of an

 1-5     individual human organism begins at the moment of fertilization. An

 1-6     unborn human organism is alive and is entitled to the rights,

 1-7     protections, and privileges accorded to any other person in this

 1-8     state.

 1-9           SECTION 2.  POWER TO ENACT.  This Act is enacted pursuant to

1-10     the power reserved to this state under the Tenth Amendment to the

1-11     United States Constitution.

1-12           SECTION 3.  EMERGENCY.  The importance of this legislation

1-13     and the crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

1-14     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

1-15     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

1-16     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,

1-17     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its

1-18     passage, and it is so enacted.