Dismemberment Abortion Trial Begins Today, Exposes Truth About Abortion In Texas
AUSTIN – A major court case began Thursday in an Austin federal courtroom concerning the Dismemberment Abortion Ban.
As the title suggests, the ban – now in state law and supported by a wide margin in the Texas Legislature – prohibits the barbaric practice tearing limbs from babies still in the womb as far along as 22 weeks. The brutal procedure is threatening to the mother as well, and only represents a tiny portion of the 50,000 abortions performed a year in Texas. Texas Values supported SB 8 (85th Legislature, 2017), which includes a specific ban on dismemberment abortion.
“This trial is already exposing the truth about abortion in Texas – gruesome procedures such as abortion-by-dismemberment are used all the time, not out of concern for the mother, but out of self-interest,” said Jonathan Saenz, President of Texas Values, who was in the courtroom this morning. “There’s a reason why a growing number of states are considering laws to ban this inexcusable procedure that ends the life of an innocent person in one of the cruelest ways imaginable.”
Jonathan talks with Rep. Stephanie Klick outside the federal courthouse in Austin about the dismemberment abortion ban law (SB8) trial:
Dismemberment abortion laws are on the books in West Virginia and Mississippi, but challenges to similar laws in Arkansas and Alabama were successful in the trial courts. Oklahoma’s law is currently being challenged.
Today’s hearing revealed much about the reasoning behind opposition to the ban, as well as what opponents think about the personhood of the unborn. The case continues tomorrow and into next week.
Dr. Mark Nichols, an Oregon Abortion provider and who has board positions for national Planned Parenthood, kept referring to unborn children as “a pregnancy.” He once referred to a delivered baby as a fetus. Nichols said some women don’t choose dismemberment abortion procedure because these women believe the baby can feel pain – a “problem,” he called it, even though he admitted that there are other abortion methods that do not involve inhumane dismemberment and are within the acceptable standard of care.
Dismemberment abortions are carried out on babies as old as 22 weeks but are typically performed on babies in the womb at or near 15 weeks. There is an exception in the law for medical emergency. In live dismemberment, the abortionist literally tears a fully formed child apart limb by limb, until it bleeds to death and is removed from the mother’s womb. It is technically referred to as “dilation and evacuation” or D&E.
The case is Whole Woman’s Health v. Paxton. It is being heard in the courtroom of Judge Lee Yeakel for the United States District Court of the Western District of Texas.
About Texas Values
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