Texas Scorecard by Jacob Asmussen December 31, 2021
More work can be done, however, to save babies in Texas. With a massacre currently unfolding in the state—more than 53,000 Texans were killed through abortions in 2020—state lawmakers had the opportunity this year to approve a variety of proposals to protect babies in the womb and even ban abortion, but they passed only three main new state laws.
While the Republican-controlled Legislature approved House Bill 1280 and Senate Bill 4—laws that respectively ban abortion only if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade and outlaws chemical murder of a child only if the child is more than 49 days old—the nation’s attention has mainly been focused on the contentious Senate Bill 8: the Texas Heartbeat Act.
The “controversial” act, hailed by lawmakers as the monumental pro-life win of the year, prohibits an individual in the state to kill a pre-born child once the baby’s heartbeat is detected (though the law still does not protect a baby in the first few weeks of his or her life).
“A physician may not knowingly perform or induce an abortion on a pregnant woman if the physician detected a fetal heartbeat for the unborn child … or failed to perform a test to detect a fetal heartbeat,” the law reads.
Additionally, the Heartbeat Act is unique in its enforcement: It empowers citizens, not government officials, to sue abortion facilities and anyone who assists in executing a heartbeat-detected child.
More:
https://texasscorecard.com/state/texas-contentious-new-pro-life-heartbeat-law-is-saving-lives/
