Thanks to the Supreme Court making its Dobbs decision official this week, a Texas trigger law that fully bans abortions will go into effect August 25th. That will protect all babies from abortions and only allow abortions in very limited instances.
And when the pro-life law goes into effect, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton says he will vigorously enforce the law to ensure women and unborn babies are protected from abortions.
Paxton issued an advisory Wednesday saying he will enforce the ban, known as the Texas’s Human Life Protection Act, which makes killing an unborn child a felony.
“Texas law in a post-Roe world has already been written. Now that the Supreme Court has finally overturned Roe, I will do everything in my power to protect mothers, families and unborn children, and to uphold the state laws duly enacted by the Texas Legislature,” Paxton said in the advisory.
“We stand ready to assist any local prosecutor who pursues criminal charges,” Paxton added.
Although Texas has a heartbeat law in force and a pre-Roe abortion law in place as well, the pro-life trigger law, that Governor Greg Abbott signed in 2021, is expected to take precedence and it will increase penalties for abortionists who kill unborn babies. Exceptions would be allowed for risks to the mother’s life or a “substantial impairment of major bodily function.” Abortionists who violate the measure could face fines or prison time.
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Abortionists who kill babies under the law will be charged with a first-degree felony if the baby dies and a second-degree felony if the baby lives– punishable by life in prison. Abortionists may also face a minimum fine of $100,000 per violation and could lose their professional license.
Paxton said his office is specifically authorized to pursue and recover civil penalties for violations and that he will “do (his) duty to enforce this law.”
Paxton said local prosecutors can “immediately pursue criminal prosecutions” of abortionists who kill unborn children. His office can only enforce the civil penalties so it will be up to local prosecutes to enforce the criminal components and some Democrats are refusing to do so. That could produce a legal situation where the state is compelled to get court permission to enforce the criminal components or find another outside attorney to do so. Or prosecutes could be replaced for failing to uphold the law.
All abortion business in Texas have reportedly stopped killing babies with the heartbeat and pre-Roe laws in effect. There are no legal challenges at this time to the trigger law banning abortions and protecting all babies statewide.
As LifeNews reported, the Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade, with a 6-3 majority ruling in the Dobbs case that “The Constitution does not confer a right to abortion” — allowing states to ban abortions and protect unborn babies. The high court also ruled 6-3 uphold the Mississippi 15-week abortion ban so states can further limit abortions and to get rid of the false viability standard.
Chief Justice John Roberts technically voted for the judgment but, in his concurring opinion, disagreed with the reasoning and said he wanted to keep abortions legal but with a new standard.
Texas and Oklahoma had banned abortions before Roe was overturned and Missouri became the first state after Roe to protect babies from abortions and South Dakota became the 2nd. Then Arkansas became the third state protecting babies from abortions and Kentucky became the 4th and Louisiana became the 5th and Ohio became the 6th and Utah became the 7th and Oklahoma became the 8th and Alabama became the 9th. This week, Mississippi became the 10th and South Carolina became the 11th,Texas became the 12th with its pre-Roe law and Tennessee became the 13th.
Michigan, Wisconsin and West Virginia have old pro-life laws on the books but there is question about whether they are applicable and will be enforced.
Ultimately, as many as 26 states could immediately or quickly ban abortions and protect babies from certain death for the first time in nearly 50 years.
The 13 total states with trigger laws that would effectively ban all or most abortions are: Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Wyoming.
“Abortion presents a profound moral question. The Constitution does not prohibit the citizens of each State from regulating or prohibiting abortion. Roe and Casey arrogated that authority. We now overrule those decisions and return that authority to the people and their elected representatives,” Alito wrote.
“Roe was egregiously wrong from the start. Its reasoning was exceptionally weak, and the decision has had damaging consequences,” Alito wrote. “And far from bringing about a national settlement of the abortion issue, Roe and Casey have enflamed debate and deepened division.”
Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Stephen Breyer authored a joint dissent condemning the decision as enabling states to enact “draconian” restrictions on women.
Polls show Americans are pro-life on abortion and a new national poll shows 75% of Americans essentially agree with the Supreme Court overturning Roe.
