Women are pushing forward and demanding change, but whether it’s Washington or Austin, politicians continue to ignore women when passing legislation. As Reform Austin has previously reported, State Representative Tony Tinderholt (R – Arlington) has a terrible history with money and places children’s health and lives at risk. Tinderholt continues the trend by also placing the lives of Texas women at risk. Time and again, Tony Tinderholt has opposed legislation to protect women:
SB 17 – Although Tinderholt voted to continue studying maternal mortality, bills like this one are passed to overlook the inaction politicians are doing instead of providing better health care for mothers to reduce deaths when giving birth.
HB 2032 – Tinderholt voted against increasing the criminal penalty for sexual offenses committed on public transportation.
HB 189 – Instead of empowering survivors, Tinderholt voted against a bill to increase the statute of limitations for offenses against sexual predators.
HB 240 – Massage parlors are occasionally hubs for sex trafficking and prey on women and underage children. This bill fought to hold landlords responsible for alleged prostitution activity in businesses, but was voted against by Tinderholt.
HB 3655 – Providing grants to encourage counties to utilize GPS monitoring in cases involving family violence as a tool to deter future violence, but Tinderholt voted against it.
HB 525 – This bill would require offenders who are on their 3rd conviction to register on a domestic violence database for anyone to pull up online, but was opposed, again, by Tinderholt.
HB 1036 – According to Texas Department of State Health Services, “for every 100,000 women in Texas, about 20 die from breast cancer.” This bill allowed coverage for breast cancer screening procedures under certain health benefit plans to reduce the unfortunate tragedy, but Tinderholt voted against it.
HB 2813 – Lastly, Tinderholt was absent for the vote on a health benefit plan coverage for ovarian cancer screening. However, knowing his long history on legislature involving women, it’s not hard to determine how it would have gone if he had been there.
HB 1729 – Would allow people to donate a dollar toward processing sexual assault evidence, when they renew their drivers license.
Whether Tony Tinderholt’s has a strong distaste for women or does not care about them is unclear. What is clear is Tinderholt continues to endanger women by voting against legislation to help women and are not safe in Texas with him voting. Texans need to demand policymakers like Tinderholt to protect women, not the predators that seek to harm them.