BEAUMONT, Texas — The U.S. Supreme Court's Wednesday night decision to uphold a new abortion law is receiving backlash from some Texans, who are protesting saying most women do not know they are pregnant within six weeks.
Protests were held around the state of Texas after state lawmakers passed the most restrictive abortion bill in the nation.
The “heartbeat bill” says that abortions cannot be performed in the state of Texas when a fetal heartbeat is protected, which in some cases could be as early as six weeks.
It is reflected in the way that local leaders voted that a majority of Texas Republicans were in favor of the bill and a majority of Texas Democrats were opposed.
State Representative James White, R-Hillister, said he is pro-life, and his concern is using the law to protect babies with a heartbeat.
“Once there is a heartbeat, we say it’s life,” White said. “At the point when that baby in that, even in that womb, exhibits that heartbeat, then that baby starts to have the protections of our laws.”
Republican representatives said they are just trying to respect life throughout the state.
“This is just another tool of many in the big box of making sure that we are promoting the sanctity of life,” White said.
The law allows Texans to sue anyone involved with facilitating an abortion, even an individual driving a woman to the clinic. This is intended to protect lives, White said.
“We give private actors the tools to bring action against people who decide to kill babies that had exhibited a heartbeat in a civil action, a civil course of action, in the courts,” White said.
However, this part of the law has received negative backlash from Texans and Democratic state representatives. State Representative Joe Deshotel, D-Beaumont, feels that it is dangerous to get everyone involved.
“There’s no reason that you would have citizens spying on other citizens, and paying them to do so makes absolutely no sense; it's very dangerous,” Deshotel said.
Deshotel in general is "totally" against the bill and believes the decision should be left up to women, he said.
“I think it does boil down to each individual situation,” Deshotel said. “I think an abortion is a very personal decision that each woman has to go through, very trying on their conscious, and on their family.”
Deshotel hypothesizes that the new law will not stop abortions, it will just make them more inconvenient. Surrounding states have already begun opening new clinics in preparation for an influx of Texas patients.
“There are other states surrounding, understand already in Oklahoma just across the border, they opening new clinics just to serve as people from Texas,” Deshotel said.
There are exemptions for medical emergencies in the bill which would need to be determined by a physician however, rape and incest are not included.