Pro-choice group weighs in on Texas new abortion laws – KGBT-TV

HARLINGEN, Texas (KVEO) Governor Greg Abbott signed into law one of the strictest limits on abortion in the whole country on May 19.

The new Texas law, which goes into effect on September 1, would ban abortions once a fetal heartbeat is detected, which is usually around six weeks. That is typically before women even know theyre pregnant.

Zaena Zamora, Executive Director of the Frontera Fund, says similar six-week abortion bans have been tried before.

Other states have tried to pass similar six-week bans, and theyve all been struck down by the lower courts because the six weeks ban is unconstitutional, said Zamora.

Legal experts say the precedent for abortion has already been set with Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey.

Zamora said that this case would almost assuredly be challenged in court as well.

Rick Barrera, an attorney in Harlingen, said that legal scholars tend to uphold precedent in cases like these.

You have that religious and freedom of expression to stand up to a government situation, that same thing has weight and balance with the fourth amendment of your own personal privacy, said Barrera.

The Texas Right to Life applauded the move by Governor Abbott but said a constitutional amendment may be necessary to make the decision permanent.

The new law wont go into effect for a few months, and pro-choice groups wont let up their fight in the interim.

Frontera fund and our sibling funds, the other funds in Texas, were going to continue fighting for abortion access in the state, and were not going to stop doing what were doing, said Zamora.

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Pro-choice group weighs in on Texas new abortion laws - KGBT-TV