A bipartisan measure has unanimously passed the Texas Senate as lawmakers advance steps to prevent their state from aiding in the Chinese regime’s forced organ harvesting.
It was passed on April 6 with approval from all 31 delegates.
The primary goal of the bill is to “prevent Texans from unknowingly becoming complicit in forced organ harvesting,” according to Kolkhorst, who recalled being approached the weekend before by a county court-at-law judge, who expressed shock after learning about the issue from her Facebook posts.
“I had no idea that this was going on,” he told the lawmaker.
At a press conference Kolkhorst hosted highlighting the bill on March 29, Chen, who now lives in Houston, shared about being blood tested during her imprisonment. She said Falun Gong adherents were targeted for the tests.
“These tests were not for our well-being because we were also severely tortured,” she said.
Rather, they were “necessary to establish a huge bio-database [for] organ matching”—identifying whether she had a suitable organ for a potential recipient.
“Falun Gong practitioners exercise daily and do not drink or smoke,” she said, noting that their healthy organs have made them a prime target for forced organ harvesting.
“Had my blood type and tissue type been a match for an organ recipient, I would not be able to be here today.”
Texas state Rep. Tom Oliverson, chairman of the House Committee on Insurance and leading the Texas House companion bill, said he remains committed to advancing the cause and doing whatever he can to “draw attention to this horrible and detestable practice.”
Working on the issue has made it plain to him that “the Chinese communist government sees its people as a commodity,” he said.
“I have seen firsthand hospital websites in English and Mandarin in China, advertising hearts available, donor standing by,” Oliverson said at the late March press conference. “You know that nobody can survive a transplant like that. These people are being sacrificed for financial gain by a government that doesn’t believe that they’re actually human beings.
“And we aim to put a stop to that once and for all.”