Texas Senate approves legislation banning most abortions, testing Roe v. Wade

[DonViejo]

Source: USA Today/Austin American-Statesman

Texas Senate approves legislation banning most abortions, testing Roe v. Wade

Madlin Mekelburg
Austin American-Statesman

AUSTIN, Texas — The state Senate approved six anti abortion bills Tuesday, including a proposal that would outlaw the procedure once a fetal heartbeat is detected, which is typically before a woman is aware she is pregnant, and another that would effectively ban the procedure completely.

The second measure would become law if the U.S. Supreme Court reverses earlier decisions legalizing abortion. Abortion opponents have pledged to push an aggressive agenda to severely limit availability of the procedure, with an eye to the changing power dynamics at the Supreme Court, where conservatives now hold a 6-3 majority.

“As we debate this, we start in different places,” said Sen. Angela Paxton, a Republican from McKinney and the author of the proposal to outlaw abortion. “The life of the mother is incredibly important, as is the life of the unborn child. It’s a difficult situation. It’s a difficult situation for the woman to be in, it’s a difficult situation for ... a child who is at the most vulnerable time in their existence and has no ability to protect themselves.”

The chamber approved five of the bills 19-12, with all Republicans voting in favor, along with one Democrat, Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr. of Brownsville. A sixth bill passed 20-11, with two Democrats supporting it.

The measures now head to the House for consideration. They are among the first bills debated and passed through the Senate, and two are top priorities of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, the Republican leader who presides over the chamber.

Read more: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2021/03/31/texas-senate-anti-abortion-ban-heartbeat-outlaw-prohibit/4818000001/

[Lovie777]

1. backroom abortions; hangers; drugs . .. .

people with money can go elsewhere. People with very little money can not.

Around and around. History repeating itself again, and humans tend to never learn from the past.

[4Q2u2]

2. Some States are even trying to block that

Making it Felony murder along with aiding and abetting murder.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/05/hb-481-georgia-law-criminalizes-abortion-subjects-women-to-life-in-prison.html

[DENVERPOPS]

10. Totally agree

Very few are old enough to remember the old days with no birth control pills and abortions being illegal.
The back alley abortion by coat hanger stories were commonplace.

In my lifetime, Coloradan's have never liked Texans moving to Colorado. But, that being said, I would like any Dem in Texas who wants to abandon Texas and come up to Colorado is understood........

[bucolic_frolic]

3. Women as chattel, women as cattle

Breed, breed, breed the little woman.

In case anyone is puzzled ....

[Lonestarblue]

4. The white religious right once again trying to legislate religion into secular law.

The claim to value the mother’s life is fraudulent when it comes to Texas Republicans. Their drastic budget cuts from a few years ago forced the closure of 81 clinics serving poor women, many of them in rural areas without other clinics. When the maternal death rate spiked, they did nothing. Republicans are okay with poor women dying because they could not get healthcare.

[DownriverDem]

6. Maybe

but they have the courts too now.

[DownriverDem]

5. All part of the repub plan

They've just waited since 1973 for a favorable Supreme Court.

[jmowreader]

7. They do realize it will apply to them too, correct?

In Margaret Atwood’s Handmaid’s Tale, Serena Joy was a crusader for Gilead’s laws. Once they were passed, she was shocked and depressed to learn she also had to follow them.

Of course, those laws won’t really apply to rich women. In the days before Roe, the rich upon learning of an unwanted pregnancy would “vacation” in a country with legal abortion. This was touched upon in popular fiction: Dean Wormer’s wife vacationed in a tropical land after the toga party, and in Arthur Hailey’s book Airport the philandering pilot Vernon Demerest was trying to decide which European country to take his mistress to after he got her pregnant. (They left that out of the movie; an abortion subplot would risk the film’s G rating.) That will resume; only people without the money to go to another country will be hurt.

[DENVERPOPS]

11. You are so correct

I remember in High school, several rich girls suddenly going to the Scandinavian countries to study for a semester abroad......

[niyad]

8. The MALE WAR ON WOMEN continues apace. Thank you for posting this. Would you consider cross-

posting in Women's Rights And Issues? Thanks in advance.

[Politicub]

9. The Texas legislature is out of step with its voters.

Gerrymandering strikes again.

According to a recent poll:

the number who said the laws on abortion should be less strict rose to 37% from 32% two years ago. Another 18% want to leave the state’s abortion laws as they are.

55 percent is a majority, of which 37 percent believe abortion laws should be less strict in the state and 18 percent are fine with abortion laws as they are.

https://www.texastribune.org/2021/03/02/texas-gambling-abortion-marijuana-confederate/