Republican Rep. Briscoe Cain’s HB 1500, dubbed "The Heartbeat Bill" would ban abortion after heartbeat detection except in the case of medical emergencies.
Current law allows abortion up to 20 weeks. Only late-term abortions are illegal in Texas.
Texas Alliance for Life is not recommending that the legislature passes HB 1500 and other bills that have very little chance of surviving a federal court challenge.
TAL Executive Director Dr. Joe Pojman said there's a catch. The federal courts will not allow Texas to pass a law and go into effect.
"The Supreme Court precedent is so out of step with modern science, that the Supreme Court does not even allow the state of Texas to protect babies whose hearts are already beating. And that is a great tragedy," said Pojman. “The unfortunate reality is that, because of terrible Supreme Court precedent, the federal courts will not allow states to protect unborn babies from abortion before the point at which babies are viable.”
Viability means that the baby can continue to live when born alive.
Pojman said the Heartbeat Bill—which has great intent, could never survive a federal court challenge, thus costing taxpayers and the state of Texas millions of dollars paying abortion provider's attorney fees.
"The federal courts, because of Supreme Court precedence, will not allow the state of Texas to pass a law like this and have it go into effect," said Pojman.
He said the top priority of Texas Alliance for Life is the passage of a trigger ban on abortion, HB 1685, that will ban abortion moment of conception, once the Supreme Court changes precedent and overturns Roe versus Wade.
Planned Parenthood, NARAL Pro Choice Texas, the ACLU, Sen. Wendy Davis and pro abortion organizations are obviously against the bill for different reasons.