Texas Lawmakers File Bills to Ban Abortions Due to Fetal Abnormalities, Require Burials for Abortions & Miscarriages

Bills introduced for the upcoming Texas legislative session by Republican lawmakers would make late-term abortions due to fetal abnormalities illegal and require women who suffer miscarriages to bury or cremate the fetus.

Tyler, Texas Representative Matt Schaefer's House Bill 87 would overturn current laws which allow women to have an abortion after 20 weeks if the fetus isn't viable, if the fetus poses a risk to the pregnant woman or due to the fetus suffering from a severe abnormality.

House Bill 201, proposed by Rep. Byron Cook of Corsicana, would require all fetal remains to be buried or cremated.

And Joint Resolution 9, filed by Edgewood's Senator Bob Hall, proposes "a constitutional amendment guaranteeing the right to life of unborn children and prohibiting abortion to the extent authorized under federal constitutional law." The resolution would put the issue in a for/against ballot in an election next November.

The new filings follow the Supreme Court's partial strike down of 2013's House Bill 2 this past summer. The court overturned requirements in the bill for facilities in Texas to meet hospital-like standards and for doctors at those facilities to have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles.

[via Dallas Morning News]