SB 10: Mercy for Survivors Bill Hearing in TX Senate
There will be a hearing tomorrow in the Senate Affairs committee on what is now SB 10, the current version of the Mercy for Survivors Bill that only includes trafficking survivors: https://capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup/Text.aspx?LegSess=891&Bill=SB10
Please be sure to check out the bill itself, as well as the analysis on it – which could easily plug abuse survivors back into the bill. We hope that folks will send written testimony to Courtney Chavez, LSJA’s point person on this bill. Please tell your survivor stories as abuse survivors or persons in proximity to a survivor. We support the trafficking survivors getting this relief – but we also support abuse survivors being put back on this bill. This is where we differ from our coalition.I don’t ask you to oppose this bill, but I do ask that we push the limits on this bill.
Attached is FBTW’s petition for you to sign, scan and send to your state senator, representative, Lieut. Gov., and the governor. Please know that this is movement – incremental. I have drawn a line in the sand for us because there are many who’ve been working for criminalized abuse survivors for 40 years; and I cannot stop thinking about our sisters on the inside who have been suffering as the decades have passed.
Download our petition: 2025-08-10 Relief for Criminalized Survivors petition.pdf
Thank you for your support,
Free Battered Texas Women
PS Courtney Chavez is the contact for the testimony, please see below:
If you are interested in supporting the bill, we ask that you consider submitting written testimony. You can email your testimony to me at cchavez@lsja.org, and I will be able to collect all statements and submit them to the clerk. We are not asking for in person testimony at this time as we are hoping to move the bill through committee quickly. If you have questions, please feel free to reach out. Thank you all for your continued support and dedication to this work.
Best,
Courtney Chavez
Director, Advocacy & Government Relations
Lone Star Justice Alliance
3809 South 1st St.
Austin, TX 78704
(o) (512) 394-5791 | (c) (512) 201-7028