Texas legislators double down on next abortion fight
NEWSWEEK
19 FEB 2017 AT 11:06 ET
Eight months after the Supreme Court struck down abortion restrictions in Texas, state legislators appear to be doubling down in a renewed effort to make the procedure difficult, and ultimately impossible, to obtain.
On Wednesday, the Texas Senate Committee on Health and Human Services held a public hearing in Austin on three bills—SB 8, SB 258 and SB 415—all of which were filed by male representatives. Taken together, the three Texas bills hold up a mirror to battles over abortion rights happening in states around the country and are part of a broader trend of politicians favoring fetal dignity and the "life of the unborn" over the rights of a pregnant human woman, says Amanda Allen, senior state legislative counsel at the Center for Reproductive Rights.
Similar to anti-abortion legislation that has been introduced in states around the country, the bills aim to enact a number of restrictions, including banning the donation of fetal tissue from an elective abortion and prohibiting D&E, or dilation and extraction, the safest and most common procedure for second trimester abortions. (D&E has been banned in West Virginia, Mississippi, Louisiana and, most recently, Arkansas.) SB 258 would require that fetal tissue from an abortion be buried or cremated. SB 8 intends to ban so-called “partial-birth abortions,” a non-medical term for dilation and evacuation (or D&X), an abortion procedure that is already banned at the federal level, except when the woman’s life is at risk.
One day after the hearing, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to reverse a rule introduced by President Barack Obama during his final days in office that blocks states from withholding federal dollars from Planned Parenthood affiliates and other clinics that provide preventative women's healthcare, but also that perform abortions.
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http://www.rawstory.com/2017/02/texas-legislators-double-down-on-next-abortion-fight/
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