HOUSTON – Texas’ American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has said that women’s health and right to an abortion will be threatened if three proposed anti-abortion bills are passed.
The bills in question, SB 8, SB 258, SB 415, would prohibit some partial abortions, dismemberment abortions and would also legislative the dealing of fetal remains.
SB 8 deals with partial abortions, which is the procedure that terminates the pregnancy and removes the infant body in whole. A physician would be required to request a hearing from the Texas Medical Board before they would be permitted to perform a partial abortion. SB 415 would make dismemberment abortions, which is the process of removing the infant’s body parts out of the mother one by one, illegal.
According to the bill, any physician who did not comply with the prohibition would be open to disciplinary action by the Texas Medical Board and could lose their license.
Bill 258 would deal with the infant remains. It would require a registry of nonprofit organizations that help women with the costs of fetal remains disposition.
The staff attorney for the ACLU Trisha Trigilio said in a press release that the bills “violate the constitutional limits on Texas’ ability to regulate abortion, in much the same way the Supreme Court ruled against in Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt last summer.”
She said the bills would prohibit reliable medical procedures for abortions.
“These laws would prevent doctors from using safe and proven medical procedures and pressure women into revealing personal information to anti-abortion groups,” Trigilio said.
Despite current legislation in support of abortion, Trigilio said that politics were not the way to deal with the issue.
“Politics have no place in the exam room to begin with, and we should be especially wary of laws with the potential to humiliate, expose and endanger Texas women.”