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Notes -
Want to bet? Here in Texas, we’re still having that exact problem.
There is zero incentive for the Texas legislature to make a clean definition. There is negative incentive for the AG’s office to be helpful or clear, since they score political points every time the scary word ends up in the news. Abortions are rare enough that most people aren’t directly affected by it, and get to cheerfully keep voting R.
So let’s make a bet: when do you think Texas will pass a more narrow law? When do you think they’ll leave the “wacky” regime behind in favor of that elusive common-sense situation?
Texas just clarified the standards for a medically necessary abortion. Kate Cox would not have been covered under the new standards either, but let's not pretend Texas criminalized miscarriage care(because it's not a pregnancy anymore).
Ken Paxton does not have unilateral control over the state's abortion policy, and the republicans in the legislature will likely clean up the definition now that Dade Phelan(who can't get any abortion laws passed post-Dobbs because he supports a rape exception) will not be speaker.
Do you have a link? All I found in the statutes was from 2013 or earlier. Is this an agency guideline?
I don’t think Texas criminalizes miscarriage. I said we’re still actively creating the situations @100ProofTollBooth dismisses as “head-scratchers.” Mainly in the haze around “medical necessity.” I expect that to continue so long as the Texas Republican Party can make political hay out of the issue. Phelan or not, there’s little incentive to play the careful technocrat. Not on one of the prime culture war battlegrounds.
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