Sweeping anti-abortion bill heads to governor's desk
Source: Texas Tribune
Texas senators voted Friday to send a bill banning the most common second-trimester abortion procedure and changing how health care facilities handle fetal remains to Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk.
Under Senate Bill 8, which passed 22-9, health care facilities including hospitals and abortion clinics would be required to bury or cremate any fetal remains — whether from abortion, miscarriage or stillbirth. The bill would also ban facilities from donating aborted fetal tissue to medical researchers, and aims to outlaw "partial-birth abortions," which are already illegal under federal law.
Most controversially, the bill now bans “dilation and evacuation” abortions — a common second-trimester procedure where doctors use surgical instruments to grasp and remove pieces of fetal tissue — unless the fetus is deceased. Medical professionals deem the current method the safest way to perform the procedure on a pregnant woman. But abortion opponents, who have dubbed the procedure “dismemberment” abortions, argue they're inhumane.
The measure is likely to see almost immediate litigation.
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Read more: https://www.texastribune.org/2017/05/26/abortion-bill-heads-governors-desk/
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