{"id":252362,"date":"2021-09-01T01:38:48","date_gmt":"2021-09-01T06:38:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=252362"},"modified":"2021-09-02T14:29:52","modified_gmt":"2021-09-02T19:29:52","slug":"texas-first-state-heartbeat-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/texas-first-state-heartbeat-law\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas becomes first state ever to enforce ‘heartbeat law’"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

As of midnight on September 1, 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court had not yet responded to an emergency appeal from abortion proponents<\/a> to stop the Texas Heartbeat Act<\/a> from going into effect, which protects preborn children from the first detectable heartbeat (around five to six weeks gestation). According to the Associated Press, at least 12 other states had previously passed legislation to protect children at the same point in gestation, none had been allowed to go into effect until now, making Texas the first state to successfully enforce such a law.<\/p>\n

News outlets reported that abortion facilities in the state\u00a0had stopped scheduling abortions<\/a> past six weeks days in advance of the September 1 effective date. The AP noted<\/a>, “Planned Parenthood is among the abortion providers that have stopped scheduling abortions beyond six weeks from conception.”<\/p>\n

According to the emergency appeal, the law will “immediately and catastrophically reduce abortion access in Texas, barring care for at least 85 percent of Texas abortion patients (those who are six weeks pregnant or greater) and likely forcing many abortion clinics ultimately to close.”\u00a0The University of Texas at Austin’s Texas Policy Evaluation Project<\/a>\u00a0estimates that about 80% of in-state abortions will be prevented. However, these estimates are not verifiable\u00a0because Texas abortion data lumps abortions at eight weeks or earlier together.\u00a0Data<\/a> from Texas Health and Human Services shows that in 2020 there were 53,922 total abortions committed in Texas on Texas residents. Of those, 45,458 (about 84%) occurred eight weeks or less into the pregnancy. The Texas Heartbeat Act\u00a0does not restrict abortion based on gestational age but on the detection of a fetal heartbeat using whatever method the abortionist deems appropriate — likely either an ultrasound or Doppler fetal heartbeat monitor. According to the law, “A physician does not violate this section if the physician performed a test for a fetal heartbeat as required […] and did not detect a fetal heartbeat.” This makes it difficult to determine how many abortions will be prevented, but it will likely be a large percentage, perhaps even greater than 85%.<\/p>\n