This week, the Texas Medical Board will begin its 30-day rule making process to craft guidance regarding what the legal ‘exceptions’ are to the state’s pro-life law protecting most preborn children from abortion. Following a January petition from two Austin lobbyists for the law’s exceptions to be more clearly defined, the board will hold a public meeting on Friday, March 22.
Current Texas law protects preborn children from abortion unless the mother’s life is determined to be in danger. There are no exceptions for rape, incest, or fetal diagnosis. Induced abortion is never truly medically necessary, even when the mother’s health or life are in danger. That’s because induced abortion is the intentional and deliberate killing of a preborn child. If the mother’s life were at risk, that child could be delivered alive through an emergency delivery, and the pregnancy ended without intentionally causing the child’s death. Emergency deliveries are not prohibited by Texas state law or any state law.
In January, married attorneys and Capitol lobbyists, Steve and Amy Bresnen, asked the board to give “clear guidance” on the situations in which women are allowed to intentionally kill their preborn children under Texas law. One of the suggestions the Bresnens proposed to the board was that the death of a pregnant woman “need not be imminent” to make her eligible to have her preborn child intentionally killed.
This could open the door to countless excuses for abortions under the umbrella of ‘medical need’ when induced abortion is not medically necessary. It is reminiscent of physician-assisted death standards shifting from including only people with “terminal” diagnoses and a short time to live to including people who have a diagnosis that will not imminently cause death. It looks as if abortion advocates are pushing the door open ever so slightly for some breathing room in the law, but in actuality, this has the potential to create an extremely broad loophole to allow even more abortions to take place — regardless of whether an emergency truly exists.
According to the Austin American-Statesman, attorney for the Medical Board, Scott Freshour, told the Bresnens in an email that the board would consider “alternative draft language” at the meeting and allow for changes to be made after a public comment process takes place.
No pro-life laws should include ‘exceptions’ that allow certain children to be targeted for death in the womb. Induced abortion is not medically necessary, and is intentional killing under the guise of health care.
