AUSTIN, Texas — During a public hearing at the Texas State Capitol on Wednesday, State Sen. Lois Kolkhorst (R-Brenham) spoke about her bill that would prohibit forced organ harvesting in China.
It is a bipartisan effort that builds from a resolution passed during the last Texas legislative session, which condemned the practice of involuntary organ harvesting in China. Senate Bill 1040 would prevent health benefit plans from paying for procedures related to organ transplants if the organ came from a country with a government that funds or sponsors forced organ harvesting.
Kolkhorst said the Chinese government targets specific religious groups in China, putting them into labor camps where they are forced to give blood and tissue samples. If the people are a match, Kolkhorst said they are forced against their will to give up one of their organs, which are then sold to people in other countries.
At the Capitol on Wednesday, witnesses from China and supporters of the bill spoke of "transplant tourism" practices.
"In May of 2019, I was sterilized by force, accompanied by many other women," one survivor of a Chinese labor camp said.
Kolkhorst was joined on Wednesday by State Rep. Tom Oliverson (R-Cypress) and State Rep. Salman Bhojani (D-Euless)
"I have seen firsthand hospital websites in English and in Mandarin in China advertising, 'Hearts available, donors standing by.' And members, friends, you know nobody can survive a transplant like that. These people are being sacrificed for financial gain by a government that doesn't believe they are human beings," Oliverson said.
Oliverson has filed an identical bill in the Texas House.