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Bill would ban abortions for fetal disabilities

Austin American-Statesman - 4/19/2019

April 19-- Apr. 19--State Rep. Matt Schaefer, R-Tyler, wants to bar Texas women from seeking an abortion because of fetal disease or disability, including severe conditions that are likely to result in a child's death shortly after birth, if not sooner.

"Dr. Seuss said a person is a person no matter how small. I would submit that a person is a person no matter how sick," Schaefer said late Wednesday during a Capitol hearing on his House Bill 2434. "We don't kill sick people in the state of Texas."

Schaefer's three-part bill would remove an exception in state law that allows abortions beyond the 20th week of pregnancy if a fetus has a life-threatening medical condition; outlaw abortions at any time if sought because of the race, sex or disability of a fetus; and require women to be informed of medical and emotional treatment options for carrying a fetus with severe physical problems to term.

While a sick child is provided all the care and comfort medical science can provide after birth, the same is not true in the womb, Schaefer said during the hearing before the State Affairs Committee.

"That's not valuing what God values. God values those lives created in his image," he said.

Anjali Salvador, a lawyer with the ACLU of Texas, testified that courts likely would strike down Schaefer's bill because it would ban abortion based on a woman's reasons for seeking the procedure, an exception not recognized by the Supreme Court.

"This proposal is unconstitutional, but it is also inhumane," Salvador said, pointing to the requirement to carry a fetus to term even if survival outside the womb is not possible.

"These decisions are deeply and profoundly personal, and that's exactly why they should be left with each woman in consultation with her health care provider," she said. "This isn't about abortion. It's about making the best choices for their health and their families."

In testimony that began shortly before midnight and ended after 2 a.m. Thursday, the committee also heard from more than a dozen parents who refused abortions despite severe fetal disabilities and said they cherished the time spent with their children, no matter how short.

Kelly Crawford said the 15 days with her son, Abel, who had an extra 18th chromosome, was the "saddest and sweetest, hardest and greatest" time of her life. Had she followed a doctor's advice to get an abortion, Crawford said, she would not have gotten to know her son or hear his newborn cry.

"A termination does not make the loss any easier, but that is how doctors present it," said Ryley Chestnut, who said she was blessed to spend 51 minutes with her daughter, Jaycee Grace, in 2016.

Several other parents said they believed it was God's choice, not theirs, to choose the time of death.

But Erika Galindo, an organizer for the Lilith Fund, which helps low-income women pay for abortions, called Schaefer's bill cruel because a blanket ban would interfere with a woman's ability to make the best medical decision based on the individual needs of her family.

Beyond striking down the exception allowing an abortion for "severe fetal abnormality" beyond the 20th week of pregnancy, HB 2434 would make it illegal to base an abortion upon the sex, race or disability of a fetus, including "physical disfigurement, scoliosis, dwarfism, Down syndrome, albinism, amelia, or any other type of physical, mental or intellectual abnormality or disease."

Doctors who violate the law could receive up to one year in jail and have their medical license suspended or revoked.

HB 2434, however, would not require doctors to ask women about their reasons for seeking an abortion before the 20th week of pregnancy, and several Democrats on the committee said the ban on race, sex and disability appeared to be unenforceable.

"If they want to get an abortion, who would say, 'I'm going to do it because of that reason?'" asked Rep. Joe Deshotel, D-Beaumont.

The committee has not yet voted on the bill.

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