The Texas Heartbeat Act

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What is the Texas Heartbeat Act?

The Texas Heartbeat Act, known as SB8 (Senate BIll 8), went into effect on September 1. This act allows private citizens to sue someone who performs or induces an abortion after “fetal heartbeat” is detected via transvaginal ultrasound at around six weeks of pregnancy.

According to this law, if the plaintiff wins the case, they will receive $10,000 in monetary judgments from the person they sue. They do not have to pay the defendants' legal fees if they lose. This sort of reward system could give rise to abortion “bounty hunters” who hunt down doctors and clinics that go against the regulations. The act contains exceptions in the case of medical emergency but not for rape or incest.

The Legal Issues Surrounding It

On September 9, the Justice Department sued Texas over the new law. They argued that it was passed “in open defiance of the Constitution”. The lawsuit — filed in federal court in Texas — seeks a declaration from a federal judge that the law is unconstitutional. The Justice Department claims that the law infringes on women's constitutional rights and violates the Constitution's Supremacy Clause, which states that federal law supersedes state law.

Additionally, medical experts have voiced their thoughts about the misleading use of the terms "fetal heartbeat” and “fetus”. While some may imagine an organ beating within a fetus, this is not yet the case. At six weeks of pregnancy, ultrasounds can identify "a small flutter in the place that will become the future heart of the baby", according to Dr. Saima Aftab, medical director of the Fetal Care Center at Nicklaus Children's Hospital in Miami. This flutter occurs when a set of cells that will form the heart's future "pacemaker" gain the ability to fire electrical signals, she explained. The heart is not yet fully formed at this stage and the “beat” is not yet audible. Moreover, up until the eighth week of pregnancy, the baby is still considered an embryo and not yet a fetus.

The law’s short window of time is also being debated. Though some may think that six weeks is plenty of time to confirm that you are pregnant, that is not necessarily the case. “Six weeks late means two weeks late for your period, and two weeks late on your period … can happen if you’re stressed, if your diet changes, or for really no reason at all. So you don’t have six weeks.” New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez explained in early September. There is only about one week before the "six-week" threshold for people with a consistent 28-day cycle to confirm pregnancy. Taking a test, getting confirmation from a health care practitioner, and having the abortion all have to happen within a week for someone who knows they want an abortion.

Latest News About It

As a sign of protest against the new law, a San Antonio doctor named Dr. Alan Braid stated that he had performed an abortion beyond the new legal threshold. "I fully understood that there could be legal consequences — but I wanted to make sure that Texas didn’t get away with its bid to prevent this blatantly unconstitutional law from being tested," he said.

Two lawyers decided to sue Dr. Alan Braid. However, neither of them is actually against abortion. One of them is a former Arkansas lawyer named Oscar Stilley. He explained that he wanted to challenge Texas’ abortion law and see if he can win. "The probability that I'm going to get ten thousand dollars or one hundred thousand dollars out of this, not very good. But if somebody's going to get ten thousand, why shouldn’t it be me?" he stated. The other is a retired pro-choice lawyer named Felipe Gomez. He also wanted to challenge the court and show them the law is unconstitutional. "It was merely to get the court literally to interpret the law as invalid," he said. If the bill is repealed, Gomez said he is willing to drop the lawsuit.

References:

• https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/10/us/politics/texas-abortion-law-facts.html

• https://www.healthline.com/health-news/most-people-dont-know-theyre-pregnant-at-6-weeks-what-that-means-for-texas-abortion-law

• https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/14/us/politics/texas-abortion-justice-department.html

• https://www.wafb.com/2021/09/15/justice-department-seeks-restraining-order-against-texas-abortion-law/

• https://www.npr.org/2021/09/19/1038717122/a-texas-doctor-says-he-defied-the-abortion-law-risking-lawsuits

• https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/sep/19/texas-doctor-abortion-law-washington-post-supreme-court

• https://www.kens5.com/article/news/health/the-law-as-invalid-two-lawsuits-filed-against-san-antonio-doctor-in-response-to-op-ed/273-ca3d6c8d-846b-4448-a4f7-52ef9c1d72a7

• https://www.livescience.com/65501-fetal-heartbeat-at-6-weeks-explained.html

• https://edition.cnn.com/2021/09/07/politics/aoc-texas-abortion-law-greg-abbott-cnntv/index.html

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Published September 27, 2021

Written by Skye Cabrera ~ Edited by Kristeen Patel ~ Graphics created by Abinaya Balaji