Texas Heartbeat Act Saves as Many as 3,207 Lives in Its First Month, Especially the Unborn of Young Pregnant Females

 By Craig Bannister | February 14, 2022 | 4:01pm EST

 

 

 

 

(Getty Images/David Kravitz)

In its first month in force, the Texas Heartbeat Act may have saved as many as 3,207 lives from death-by-abortion, according to statistics published by the state.

In September 2021, there were 2,197 abortions performed in Texas, a decline of 3,207, or 59.3%, from the previous month, before the law took effect.

September’s death toll is also down 51% from the same month in 2020 (4,511) and well below 2021’s eight-month average of 5,232 abortions. Through the first nine months of 2021, September was the only month to have fewer than 4,250 abortions.

The Heartbeat law appears to be the most effective when it comes to saving the lives of the unborn of young mothers. While no abortions were recorded for females 11 years old and younger in either month, the number of Texas abortions performed on 12-13 year-old females fell from five in August to zero in September.

The August-to-September percentage decline in the number of abortions falls steadily as the pregnant female’s age increases, from a 78.8% drop among 14-15 year-olds to a 54.6% decline for those 35-39. Among the oldest category of females (40+), abortions fell 57.9%.

As Axios notes, while some pregnant women may have left the state to have abortions, it is both burdensome and expensive to do so:

“Many Texans are forced to travel to neighboring states — Oklahoma, Louisiana, New Mexico or Arkansas — to access abortion providers.

• With the exception of New Mexico, these states have strict requirements that patients must follow to receive health care.
• It can also be very expensive. About "$550 is the average cost for an abortion and then when you start to add in travel, hotel and food costs, those costs skyrocket, potentially to hundreds of dollars or more," said Elizabeth Nash, lead state policy analyst for the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive rights research and policy organization.“

Additionally, September’s increase in clients at Texas pregnancy centers suggests that fewer women are having abortions, National Review reports:

“Some Texas women, to be sure, are circumventing the Heartbeat Act by obtaining abortions in other states. But a survey taken by Heartbeat International in September 2021 indicates that 41 percent of pregnancy centers in Texas and surrounding states have seen an increase in clients, so clearly more Texas women are seeking assistance in carrying pregnancies to term.  Data on births by Texas women from this spring and summer will provide even clearer data on the effect of the Heartbeat Act.”

The Texas Heartbeat Act protects an unborn child once that child’s heartbeat is detected and, as The Daily Signal explains, it empowers citizens, not the government, to enforce it:

“The Texas law prohibits most abortions after a fetal heartbeat can be detected via ultrasound, which is at roughly six weeks gestation. It also prohibits individuals from assisting a person in obtaining an illegal abortion.”

….

“But the Texas Heartbeat Act takes a novel approach. Specifically, state officials may not enforce the law and are granted sovereign immunity against anyone seeking to bring suit on the grounds that the bill is contrary to constitutional law.

“Instead, private citizens may bring a civil enforcement action against someone who performs an abortion in violation of the law or assists someone in obtaining an illegal abortion. Therefore, the only way for an abortion provider to claim a defense against application of the law is to wait for a private actor to sue, and then raise their contrary argument that the law itself is unconstitutional.”

 https://www.cnsnews.com/index.php/blog/craig-bannister/texas-heartbeat-act-saves-many-3207-lives-its-first-month-especially-unborn