Texas: The Issue Is - State Sen. Nathan Johnson discusses cities trying to pass abortion travel bans

The topic of abortion is back on center stage after a North Texas woman sued the state to allow her to get an abortion.

Now, some Texas cities are trying to pass travel bans.

FOX 4’s Steven Dial spoke with North Texas State Senator Nathan Johnson, who is trying to block that.

Sen. Johnson: I need my trash picked up. I need a police force that's responsive. I need potholes fixed. I need development on the economic level in my city. Those are things that city and county and state government are supposed to be doing. And this kind of stuff is just sucking up all the oxygen. And I think it's irresponsible government governance. And I think we need to do the job that the people elected us to do, which is provide an environment in which people can thrive and prosper.

Dial: Democrats are in the minority in both the House and Senate. What gives you confidence or a thought that this is something that your colleagues on the other side of the aisle may consider?

Sen. Johnson: I was absolutely certain that it was not going to move during the special session. But we do have a government where things move incrementally. And if you don't get started, you're not going to get to the finish line. So I thought it was important to get the conversation going. What gives me some confidence that people will take it seriously is that the you know, the Republicans in the legislature and in leadership have generally taken a pretty narrow view of local authority to govern actions of individuals. And so I think it would be consistent if you if you want to embrace it along ideological lines. I think it is perfectly consistent for a modern conservative who opposes local governments to say, hey, that's too far.

Dial: I know Lubbock officials already passed something in reference to this recently. Amarillo City Council have that debate over this. They haven't made any solid decisions yet, but the fact that it's being talked about, do you also question how can something like this be enforced, not even the vigilante or the citizen part that you're talking about, but how can local law enforcement enforce this law if it becomes a law?

Sen. Johnson: They have an option to make it to where local police enforces the law or where they run it on through the civil, basically going around the court system, having citizen get citizen. And in the case of Amarillo, I think they're still trying to figure out what they want to do. I don't think it's especially enforceable either way. Maybe it is. It's tragic if it is. But I do think that simply having the bill there creates a problem. It creates that really hostile narrative that kind of puts us in an ugly state in a society where we're all against each other. And I really don't think that's where we want to be.

Dial: Recently, we dealt with the federal case in reference to a North Texas woman who was asking the state for an abortion. She eventually went out of the state where it was legal to get it done. I think abortion will be a topic that a lot of candidates, not just the top of the ticket, will be talking about in Texas and nationwide next year.

Sen. Johnson: I think so, Steven, because the abortion issue goes beyond the way people often think about it. You take examples like Kate Cox, and I think as people start to understand a little more about what exactly it means to have a ban on abortions, I think the conversation keeps going. It will be an issue. It's a very divisive issue. I would like to see a more tolerant society where people are respectful of philosophical and religious views on topics like abortion. And I think that that debate is going to continue to be a central part of politics for quite some time.