Lone Star Politics: Texas Abortion Law, Update on Masks

One of the authors of Texas' abortion law, which took effect Wednesday and bans most abortions after six weeks, State Sen. Bryan Hughes (R-Mineola), discusses the law after the legislature's second special session of the summer came to an end.

"This bill says, when there's a fetal heartbeat, when there's a heartbeat detected, that little unborn baby growing inside her mothers' womb, that little baby is the most innocent, the most helpless and the most worthy of protection a human will ever be," said Hughes, who also authored Texas' new elections law.

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The new voting law adds ID requirements, puts limits on mail voting and drop-boxes, and adds new controls over local elections officials.

U.S. Rep. Marc Veasey (D-Fort Worth) also spoke to Julie Fine and Gromer Jeffers this week on Lone Star Politics.

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"We need to put states like Texas back into preclearance because this won't be the end. People need to understand that," Veasey said. "They're building up to something I think that's even going to be more extreme, going to suppress even more votes and this is just the beginning."

And in a digital exclusive interview, attorney David Coale explains the problems lawmakers ran into during the special session when they attempted to legislate face masks.

"They're trying to find a compromise. They've got to find something everybody can live with. It is impossible to compromise these mask things," Coale said. "If you have an opt-in or an opt-out, it's no longer universal masking and it's not masking anymore. It doesn't work. You have to have a lot of people doing it for it to work. They tried to reach all these compromises and just by its nature it can't be compromised, so it sort of fell apart."