November 28, 2021
Texas’s creative abortion ban has saved a surprising number of lives
By Andrea Widburg
On September 1, Texas’s heartbeat law went into effect. Under the law, it’s illegal to have an abortion once a fetus’s heartbeat is detectible, which occurs at about 6 weeks. Texas, however, denied itself the authority to enforce the law. Instead, the law allows private citizens to sue abortion providers for damages. States have successfully used “private attorney general” laws for decades to help police unfair commercial practices. That success seems to have translated to using private attorneys general to police illegal abortions in Texas, for abortion clinics are reporting a 70-80% decrease in abortions.
LifeNews reports with joy about an article in the Texas Tribune that, in a much grimmer tone, reports that abortion clinics in Texas are ghost towns:
Since the law went into effect, abortion providers have seen a significant drop in the number of women they are able to serve under the new restrictions, along with fewer calls for those services as well.
The four Whole Woman’s Health clinics in Texas are operating at 20% to 30% of their previous service levels, with only a fraction of patients coming in or qualifying for abortions under the new restrictions, said Amy Hagstrom Miller, president and CEO.
“It’s just becoming eerie,” Miller said. “I think when people kind of know they're seven or eight weeks pregnant or further pregnant, they're not even calling anymore … a lot of folks are just, I think, going straight to calling Oklahoma and New Mexico and Louisiana.”
Intriguingly, Planned Parenthood reports “that demand for more reliable birth control has increased.”That seems to support a concern that the pro-life movement has long voiced, which is that too many women view abortion as just another form of birth control. In addition, Planned Parenthood is finally doing what it said all along it was doing, which is basic women’s health care, such as cancer screenings, hormone therapy (presumably for menopause and other conditions unique to women), and general sexual health.
Even if the Supreme Court reverses the law, explains the Texas Tribune, the clinics have lost employees who, concerned about future job security, moved on to other jobs. According to one person interviewed for the article, this means that there’ll be a long lead time to get clinics staffed again….
As I said, while the Tribune is depressed, Life News is ecstatic:
For the80 days that the law has been in effect, thousands of babies’ lives have been sparedfrom abortion. While abortion activists say some women are traveling to other states for abortions, they admit that others are having their babies instead.
“… recent studies show that the majority of women who are prevented from reaching an abortion provider due to travel distance give birth as a result,” a group of 154 pro-abortion economists and researchers told the U.S. Supreme Court in a brief.
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/11/texass_creative_abortion_ban_has_saved_a_surprising_number_of_lives.html