Texas House Bill 4553 is Bad News

This week, Texans witnessed a deeply troubling development in the House Public Health Committee: the hearing of House Bill 4553 (HB 4553), a bill that, under the guise of improving public health reporting, threatens to undermine parental freedom and vilify midwifery—a safe and often faith-affirming alternative to hospital births.

Let’s be clear: HB 4553 is not about improving healthcare. It's about expanding government control into the private, God-ordained decisions of families. The bill proposes increased and redundant reporting requirements on midwives, a move which could shift blame and legal responsibility onto these trusted professionals, even when they operate within their lawful scope and transfer mothers and babies to hospitals in a timely and appropriate manner.

The committee meeting started at 8 AM, but HB 4553 wasn’t called up until the evening. Texas Family Project was on hand to testify against the bill, and our testimony wasn’t heard until nearly 1 am. 

At the heart of this issue is the freedom of families to choose the birth method that aligns with their values, needs, and faith. For many Christian families, midwifery is more than a medical choice—it’s a spiritual one. It reflects a belief in natural birth and in rejecting the one-size-fits-all model of institutional medicine. Kaden Lopez, Executive Director of Texas Family Project, put it perfectly: with proper diligence, midwifery is just as safe as any hospital route.

These new requirements would do little more than bury midwives under paperwork, delay patient care, and penalize midwives for events they do not control. Worse, this bill manipulates statistics out of context to paint midwives as negligent, when they often offer personalized and compassionate care. Midwives are already required to report vital statistics. Adding layers of bureaucracy not only hinders their ability to serve but also sets them up for failure.

HB 4553 is another attempt by big-government liberals and bureaucrats to chip away at family autonomy. It is an unnecessary burden that could lead to fewer midwives, less access to alternative birth methods, and ultimately, more state control over how our children are born. That’s not the Texas way!

This bill is not about protecting life—it’s about controlling it. And in a time when our values, traditions, and freedoms are under constant attack, we must stand firm.

HB 4553 must be defeated. For our families, for our faith, and for our freedom.