A "wrongful birth" bill prohibiting parents from suing doctors after their child is born with severe disabilities is headed to the full Texas Senate after clearing committee this week.
Senate Bill 25 is in response to a Texas Supreme Court ruling in 1975 that said parents were entitled to damages if a doctor failed to notify them of problems during pregnancy.
“To hold a physician liable for damages only because parents ultimately found their child was disabled, it promotes a culture I believe Texans just don't believe in, which is that a disabled child has less worth than an able-bodied child,” says Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe.
However, Creighton says parents would still be able to sue for negligence.
“Physicians doing their job and doing it correctly would not be held liable for damages just because ultimately a child, through no fault of their physician, was deemed to be disabled.”
Abortion advocates argue it allows doctors to "impose their own morality" on patients.
“If anything, we want to make sure that physicians are not promoting termination of a pregnancy just to avoid possible liability even though there would be no fault attributed to the doctor,” says Creighton.