Please join us in giving continued thanks and praise as Texas Governor Greg Abbott just signed Chemical Abortion Restriction Senate Bill 4— yet another Texas law that will save babies from abortion and protect women!
Governor Abbott prioritized SB4 for consideration and action during the Special Sessions this Summer to restrict and regulate chemical abortions in Texas.
In recent years and this year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has relaxed federal abortion pill (RU-486) safety protocols which has dramatically increased the number of chemical abortions nationally and in Texas. Dangerous complications from chemical abortions occur at a much higher rate than surgical abortions, including incomplete abortion, future miscarriage and stillbirth, and hemorrhaging and death from undiagnosed ectopic pregnancy.
The critical importance of SB4 was heightened by the recent enactment of the Texas Heartbeat Act. SB4 works in tandem with the Heartbeat Act by adding criminal penalties for anyone selling abortion pills illegally. As evidenced by a recent article in The Dallas Morning News (See the article HERE), chemical abortion pill providers and promoters are targeting abortion minded women no longer lawfully able to obtain a surgical abortion. A proliferation of online options mailing abortion pills to women for self-managed, at-home abortions has arisen.
SB4 specifically:
- Prohibits chemical abortions by mail or delivery service
- Requires the person providing the abortion-inducing drugs to be a physician who performs an in-person examination of the pregnant woman
- Requires the examining physician to verify that the woman does not have an ectopic pregnancy as well as follow other safety protocols
- Requires a follow-up visit
- Prohibits chemical abortions at more than 49 days gestation
- Requires voluntary and informed consent and reporting
Imposes criminal penalties for violations
We continue to give thanks for our Texas Governor and lawmakers who make the protection of mothers and their babies a priority. We pray for judges and legislators at the federal and state level to use their positions of leadership and authority to honor the sanctity of human life.