A Texas House committee has advanced three pro-life bills to the full House for debate. The bills, if passed, could ban abortions as early as six weeks when an embryonic heartbeat can be detected.
Included in the bills that will go to the House floor is HB 1515, the Texas Heartbeat Act, which would ban abortion after a preborn child’s heartbeat is detectable. The bill carries an exception in cases of “medical emergency,” but deliberately destroying a preborn human being is never medically necessary.
In addition, HB 3218, the Preborn NonDiscrimination Act (PreNDA), would ban discriminatory abortions based on the sex, race, or suspected disability of the preborn child. Currently, abortions are allowed after 20 weeks in cases involving certain prenatal diagnoses of the child. Rather than push women towards abortion, proponents of the bill say doctors should provide women with information on perinatal palliative care.
HB 3760, the Texas Abolition Strategy Act (TAS) is a three-in-one omnibus bill that includes a heartbeat bill, an anti-discriminatory abortion bill, and a measure that would end elective abortions in Texas within the next four years, according to Texas Right to Life. Similar versions of these pro-life bills have already passed the Texas Senate.
“Texas plummeted in recent years to only the 20th Pro-Life state in the nation,” said Texas Right to Life Senior Legislative Associate Rebecca Parma. “This ranking represents thousands of lives that could have been saved and thousands of mothers who have been harmed by the abortion industry. For the sake of those women and their children, Texas must be bold at this pivotal time. These Pro-Life Priority Bills are our opportunity to lead the nation in overturning Roe v. Wade.”
HB 1515 states, “The legislature finds that the State of Texas never repealed, either expressly or by implication, the state statutes enacted before the ruling in Roe v. Wade, […] that prohibit and criminalize abortion unless the mother’s life is in danger.” In the event that Roe v. Wade is overturned, those Texas laws would go back into effect.
There are fewer than 50 days left in the House session, according to Texas Right to Life, so the vote must be held soon.
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