The conservative state of Texas has always advocated for strict regulations on abortion and just recently, suggestions for even tighter regulations have risen. New bills are being introduced specifically targeting teens and making it harder for teens to get approval by court for an abortion. Essentially, the individual seeking legal approval for an abortion would have to provide more evidence of her maturity and fear of abuse. Republican Rep. Ron Simmons proposed to require public disclosure of judges who allow judicial bypass applications.
Many of these new proposals are expected to be approved by the Republican controlled Legislature. It will be interesting to see how this issue pans out and where it is brought up yet again.
http://news.yahoo.com/texas-lawmakers-want-close-bypass-teen-abortions-160219182.html
Thank you for a very informative post, Caroline! It's sad, but Texas isn't the only state implementing stricter regulations on abortion--Oklahoma and Kansas are doing so as well. Kansas recently passed a law a few days ago banning one of the safest and most common procedures for ending a 2nd trimester pregnancy. This is in addition to dozens of other limitations on a woman's right to have an abortion. Oklahoma passed a similar ban and the bill awaits signing by Oklahoma's governor Mary Falin, who has passed previous anti-abortion bills.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the post, Caroline! After reading this, I decided to see which other states have proposed or passed legislation regulating abortion. As of April 1, 332 abortion measures have been introduced, and 9 have already been signed into law. I'm not sure if that number includes the bills Katherine mentioned, but that's a huge increase; at this time last year, only 3 abortion measures had become law. Arkansas has already passed 6 laws regulating abortion, and along with Arizona has enacted a provision requiring doctors to inform women that drug-induced abortions can be reversible (although there is a lack of research and evidence to back up this claim). If you're interested, here's a map showing where abortion restrictions have been passed so far in 2015: http://www.guttmacher.org/graphics/AbortionRestrictionsMap-040215.jpg
ReplyDeleteIt makes me upset that certain states do not give people abortion rights because I believe that it is the choice of whoever is having the baby and the person that got her pregnant. It is not fair to force someone to have a baby that they do not want because this baby will most likely not be given the care and love that he or she deserves. At the same time I do not like the idea of killing human life, but at the same time, it really should be up to the person who is pregnant to decide what she wants to do.
ReplyDelete