Health for women begins in the womb!
Houston Coalition for Life is delighted to share wonderful pro-life news:
Wednesday, May 19th, Gov. Abbott signed the Heartbeat Act (TX SB 8) into law! This law will criminalize abortions done on pregnant women once the fetal heartbeat of their unborn child has been detected, with the exception of the mother’s life being in danger. The heart can be seen beating as early as 18 days and is typically able to be picked up via ultrasound at 6 weeks.
Up to this point, several states have passed laws that allow for the unborn baby to be protected before the age of viability (or 20 weeks after conception) when the baby can survive(aided) outside of the womb. Sadly at this point, pro-life laws passed by state legislatures that would prevent pre-viability stage abortions are being struck down in court because of Roe v Wade (1973) and Planned Parenthood v Casey (1992).
No doubt the Texas Heartbeat Act will be challenged, prior to the earliest point of legal enforcement (Sept 1, 2021). If the Heartbeat Act DOES go into effect, it would allow for anyone who is not a government agency or official to sue on behalf of the unborn child whose life is stolen through means of abortion if their heartbeat had been detected.
The penalty fine would be $10,000 per abortion if the physician does an abortion or intends todo an abortion after detecting a fetal heartbeat through a typical “test”. He must maintain documentation on the test performed, and if he determines that an abortion is necessary for the pregnant woman even after a fetal heartbeat has been detected, then he has to document his medical reasons. The policy and attempted “justifications” for such exceptions and format of “documentation,” will definitely be a matter that will be argued about during law suits that would follow if this law goes into effect. Based on this law, it appears that someone could argue that a person who coerces a pregnant woman to abort or who pays for the abortion, including any insurance company could be sued$10,000 as well.
However the pregnant woman or post-abortive would not in any circumstance be legally accountable nor fined by this law even if she went through with an abortion. Within the2021 Texas Heartbeat Act there are provisions that the pregnant woman must be informed of the risks to women’s health from an abortion, about the legal requirement for the father of the child to provide child support, and for the protective measures if she is the victim of rape or sexual assault. It appears from the framing of this law, that pregnant woman would also NOT beheld legally accountable to pay for the lawyers of the abortionist or insurance company if she lost the suit. The hope is that this law will help her to not panic and bring her more peace of mind knowing the support and better navigational tools for her to stabilize while pregnant and as a mom of a child who is born.
Interesting to note, the woman has 4 years after the abortion until she no longer has standing, which is twice as long as what is typically allowed for the statute of limitations in personal injury cases. However, many women don’t come forward to seek healing after abortion until 7 years or later after the experience.
PLEASE NOTE: The information in this Houston Coalition for Life article is based on a non-legal entity reading the recently passed Texas law and providing commentary and is not to be construed as legal advice. This Heartbeat Act likely to be hotly contested and debated in its intricacies case by case and point by point whether or not it goes into effect on Sept 1, 2021.
It will be up to the courts as to whether it will be allowed to go into effect prior to a very similar case that will be heard by the Supreme Court as early as October of2021 with a decision coming as early as the Spring of 2022. We look forward to what the US Supreme Court will say about the 15 week abortion ban in Mississippi (Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization) as the court examines if and how states can regulate abortions prior to viability.
When legal challenges do arise for the 2021 Texas Heartbeat Act, any lower court’s decision might also be affected by the growing number of legislatures passing pre-viability restrictions and increasing wave of pro-life laws that highlight that the country acknowledges the pre-born child as a person who can be legally protected under the law, a legal acknowledgement that would undermine Roe v Wade.
At this point, Planned Parenthood v. Casey does allow for states to regulate abortions provided that there is substantial evidence of harm to women’s health caused by abortion.
Tragically, as the unborn child’s humanity is ignored, even the 911 calls around the country from women needing to be rushed from an abortion facility to the hospital does not appear to create the leverage necessary to protect women’s health from the devastation of legalized abortion.
In the first 4 months of2021, there have been at least 4 ambulances needed to pick up girls from just one of the abortion facilities in Houston - Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast, the mega Ambulatory Surgical Center. These women needed medical attention (actual health care) and had to be transported to the hospital. Will they have any legal recourse for complications they suffer from a chemical or surgical abortion?
You can listen to this emergency call from November, 2020
(There were 4 more obtained in 2021)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_43X7heUmV8
Sadly even if evidence of women's health concerns work to slow the damage done by this procedure incrementally, it doesn’t stop the pre-born child from being treated as less than human. Really the question shouldn’t be about regulating pre-viability abortions. The real question should be: how can the US Constitution do anything but protect the lives of the pre-born child from the scientific point of existence which is FERTILIZATION...because “we are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights”.
Please pray for the conversion of all who are involved in the horror of abortion. May they realize the terrible damage they are doing by destroying the unborn and harming women.
Check out a non-exhaustive list of 911 calls in Houston from abortion facilities at https://www.houstoncoalition.com/911-calls
