HBA-EDN H.B. 2956 77(R) BILL ANALYSIS Office of House Bill AnalysisH.B. 2956 By: King, Phil State Affairs 3/28/2001 Introduced BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Currently, there are both licensed and unlicenced facilities which provide abortion services to women. Some of the clinics advertising abortion services in telephone books across the state are not licensed by the Texas Department of Health (TDH). As a result, TDH is unable to provide any information on those facilities to a person who seeks such information and has no regulatory authority over the standards of care in those clinics. House Bill 2956 prohibits a facility that is not licensed from advertising its services in the yellow pages. RULEMAKING AUTHORITY It is the opinion of the Office of House Bill Analysis that this bill does not expressly delegate any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution. ANALYSIS House Bill 2956 amends the Health and Safety Code to prohibit a facility from advertising the availability of abortion services at the facility in the yellow pages of a telephone directory, unless the facility is licensed under the Texas Abortion Facility Reporting and Licensing Act. EFFECTIVE DATE September 1, 2001.