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Texas Passes Bill Requiring Women to Hold Funerals For Their Abortions

AP Photo/Eric Gay
AP Photo/Eric Gay

The law also bans most abortions happening after 13 weeks.

Texas legislators have introduced a bill colloquially known as the "fetal funerals" law, and as if that name isn't distrubing enough, what the new decree stipulates is even more horrifying.

Senate Bill 8, as it's officially titled, mandates a few things: first, that all fetal remains must be buried or cremated--this means that whether you have an abortion or miscarry, you'll have to have a funeral of sorts for your lost fetus. I've said it once and I'll say it again: The Handmaid's Tale is real life.

Related | Texas to Require Women to Bury Aborted Fetuses

Under Senate Bill 8, women also cannot donate fetal tissue for research, as all the remains must be used for the funerals. How lovely and practical.

The bill bans a technique called "dilation and evacuation," which is used for almost all second term abortions and so, in essence, would ban abortions happening after the first 13 weeks. And get this--anyone found to be assisting in any of the aforementioned banned activities is subject to up to two years in prison.

Texas Governow Greg Abbott's new decree comes after the state has infamously tried and failed before to prevent women from having abortions. Their HB2 bill was one of the strictest anti-abortion laws in history, and while it was struck down by the Supreme Court last year, it's impact on the amount of abortion clinics open in Texas is lasting:Sub-buzz-13105-1496879562-2

Texastribune.org

This isn't the first time Texas has required fetal burials:

Amanda Allen, senior state legislative counsel for the Center for Reproductive Rights, said in Buzzfeed's report, "No state has put together a host of restrictions in one package like this before. It's the most sweeping piece of anti-abortion legislation this session."

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