Five months after the controversial overturn of Roe v. Wade, the effects of that legal decision as well as the Texas Heartbeat Protection Act are still to be determined.
The legality of abortion procedures in the state of Texas has shifted within the last two years. The Heartbeat Protection Act, passed in 2021, was designed for physicians to take all necessary steps to protect the life of a child once a heartbeat is detected – usually around the six-week mark of a pregnancy.
In a separate piece of legislation on Aug. 25, 2022, Texas enacted a trigger provision within House Bill 1280, passed in 2021. This conditional provision took effect only after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling in June. The Texas measure eliminates most abortions in the state and includes penalties for abortion providers who break the law.
BIRTH STATISTICS
Based on data from the Texas Department of State Health Services, the average number of abortions per month from April 2021 to August 2021 was 5,194. For the five-month period following when the Heartbeat bill went into effect on Sept. 1, 2022, the average number of abortions decreased to around 2,434 per month.
Few statistics are available for birth rates in Texas after passage of the Heartbeat Protection Act, however provisional data from the DSHS compares birth-rate averages between March and July of 2021 with the comparable period after implementation of the new heartbeat law. In 2021 from March to July, there were 153,263 births compared 157,856 in 2022.
An investigation available online in the journal JAMA may explain why the drop in abortions has not necessarily translated to higher birth rates. Researchers found six months after the Heartbeat Protection Act went into effect, there were 13,802 abortions performed, and 8,740 out-of-state abortions among Texas residents. From September 2020 to August 2021, 2,547 out-of-state abortions were performed among Texas residents.
The number of Texas women of childbearing age increased by 1.4% from 2021 to 2022, based on projections from the Texas Demographic Center. Perhaps the increase in women of childbearing age and the Texas Heartbeat Protection Act contributed to the rise in births.
In Lampasas, JoAnn and James Mensch head up New Beginning of Restoration and Hope, which serves as the sole pregnancy resource center in Lampasas County. They say the trend in seeking out-of-state abortions is in line with what other resource centers have suspected.
“A lot of other places we have heard from say that some of the clients that are abortion-minded are going to get the abortion pill,” James Mensch said. “The government and Planned Parenthood are really pushing the abortion pill.”
The Mensches reported that New Beginning of Restoration and Hope has seen a significant increase in its client numbers since the Texas heartbeat law passed, although they said other centers have reported a drop.
They also noted the financial impacts the COVID-19 pandemic has had on organizations such as theirs. To compensate for a loss in donations that fund the resource center, the Mensches are expanding Mary’s Boutique within the center. Clothing items will be available at a discounted rate in the next couple of weeks to generate some extra income.
COVID-19 ADOPTION IMPACTS
The COVID-19 pandemic also has had impacts on adoption within the state of Texas.
As of Aug. 31, 2019, there were 6,806 children waiting for adoption, according to the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services Permanent Managing Conservatorship. That number dropped to 5,963 by Aug. 31, 2022.
Within the same time span, the number of foster or adoptive homes approved by the DFPS as a childplacing entity dropped from 1,434 to 696.
In Lampasas County, eight children are awaiting adoption. Those children are in placements intended to become permanent. Only two foster or adoptive homes in the county have been approved by DFPS for child placement.
Mark Wilson, a spokesperson for the DFPS, said the number of children entering foster care also has declined significantly in recent years. He contributed this to fewer children who are separated from their families initially.
Wilson admitted the COVID-19 pandemic has had effects that are tough to quantify.
“The child welfare network is a complex system that involves multiple state agencies and partner non-profits groups,” Wilson said. “Given that complexity, along with the social and economic stressors over the past couple of years, it’s difficult to pinpoint the root cause of the shift in those numbers.”
He encouraged anyone who is pondering the idea of becoming a foster or adoptive parent to visit adoptchildren.org to learn more about the process.
ABORTION RULING UPCOMING
A case filed in Amarillo by the Alliance Defending Freedom alleges the Food and Drug Administration wrongly approved chemical abortion drugs Mifeprex and its generic mifepristone tablets.
The FDA approved Mifeprex in 2000, and the generic form in 2019. Either medication is taken with misoprostol to terminate a pregnancy in the first 10 weeks of gestation.
A ruling in favor of the Alliance Defensing Freedom’s case by District Court Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk would roll back the availability of these abortion pills.
If the ruling is appealed by either side, the case will move to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Eventually, the case could present the U.S. Supreme Court with another major decision regarding the sanctity of life.
