AUSTIN – Unsurprisingly, pro-abortion advocates are targeting the biggest Pro-Life victory of 2017: the Dismemberment Abortion Ban. After futile attempts to stop the measure from being signed into law, abortion providers and the Center for Reproductive Rights filed a lawsuit in the federal district court challenging the Dismemberment Abortion Ban section of the Pro-Life Senate Bill 8 passed by the Texas Legislature in the 85th Regular Session in May of this year.
The Dismemberment Abortion Ban – a prohibition on the medical procedure whereby a living child in utero is killed by ripping him or her limb from limb – had been filed by Senator Charles Perry (R-Lubbock) and Representative Stephanie Klick (R-Fort Worth). Senator Perry’s SB 415 passed the full Senate early in the regular session with bipartisan support on a 22-8 vote, but the companion was stalled in the House, prompting Representative Klick’s amendment to Senate Bill 8. The amendment passed with overwhelming bipartisan support of House members on a vote of 92-42.
Senate Bill 8 prohibits partial birth abortion, regulates the disposition of abortion victims, and, as amended, bans the gruesome and torturous dismemberment abortion procedure. When SB 8 reached the floor of the Texas House of Representatives, Pro-Life House members joined the efforts of the House Freedom Caucus to amend SB 8 with life-saving amendments, most notably the Dismemberment Abortion Ban.
Texas Right to Life has been anticipating this court challenge as the next logical step for the Pro-Life movement to undermine Roe v. Wade. Pro-Life activists and leading experts are confident the Dismemberment Abortion Ban will follow the path of the federal partial birth abortion ban, which banned one specific abortion procedure. In the 2007 ruling of Gonzales v. Carhart, the Supreme Court confirmed the states’ compelling interests in protecting the integrity and ethics of the medical profession in protecting the life of the preborn child.
Texas Right to Life has faith in the Office of the Attorney General of Texas, Ken Paxton, and in his experienced team to successfully defend this Pro-Life priority legislation and to once and for all end inhumane and horrific practice of dismemberment abortions in Texas.