The Texas Heartbeat Act is being hailed as a great prolife victory. (Read the actual bill HERE)
The Act says that abortion is “prohibited” if a preborn baby’s heartbeat can be detected.
The Act authorizes anyone to sue anyone (other than the mother, of course) who is involved in performing or inducing an abortion on a baby with a heartbeat. If the Plaintiff wins the suit, the Defendant must pay $10,000 per abortion.
The Supreme Court declined to stop the law from being enacted, so it went into effect September 1.
But the reports of the Act “outlawing virtually all abortion” are far from accurate. In fact, we consider that to be just another “Texas Tall Tale.” Let us tell you why Florida Christians should NOT allow this Act to rear its ugly head in our state:
The Texas Heartbeat Bill is Biblically bad.
Please be sure to see Abolish Abortion Florida's previous blog, "Heartbeat Bills are Heartless," for a comprehensive list of evils that ALL heartbeat bills have in common. See below for but a few of the reasons why the Texas Heartbeat Act, in particular, is Biblically and procedurally flawed.
1. It is an iniquitous decree that allows some babies to be killed so that others can be saved.
By fashioning the law so that only babies with (detectable) beating hearts are saved, the law of course sacrifices babies whose hearts are not yet formed, or not yet detectable. God did not say, "You shall not murder some." He decreed, "You shall not murder." Exodus 20:13. Isaiah 10:1-2 says, "Woe to those who decree iniquitous decrees, and the writers who keep writing oppression, to turn aside the needy from justice and to rob the poor of my people of their right, that widows may be their spoil, and that they may make the fatherless their prey!"
Paul said that anyone who suggests doing evil that good may come is justly condemned. The ends do not justify the means. Romans 3:8 “Why not do evil that good may come? As some people slanderously accuse us of saying. Their condemnation is just." Is it evil to allow some babies to be murdered to save others? Of course it is.
2. It shows partiality. Very young humans are not deemed worthy of saving.
The Act does nothing to protect the very young from homicide. Instead, it says that the presence of a heartbeat is the most common way to predict whether a baby is going to make it to birth. The Texas Legislature is an age, size and location bigot.
Acts 10:34-35: "So Peter opened his mouth and said: 'Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.'"
Col 3:25: "For the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done, and there is no partiality."
James 2:9: "But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors."
Deuteronomy 10:17-18: For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe. He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow. . . (Emphasis added).
3. It does not treat murder as murder.
The Texas Heartbeat Act treats murder not as a crime to be prosecuted, but as a civil matter to be litigated between two parties. The state of Texas not only refuses to criminalize the act of homicide, but it hides its face from the killers. By refusing to prosecute mothers, it also gives women a license for child sacrifice.
Lev. 20:4:-5 And if the people of the land do at all close their eyes to that man when he gives one of his children to Molech, and do not put him to death, then I will set my face against that man and against his clan and will cut them off from among their people, him and all who follow him in whoring after Molech. (Emphasis added).
By not prosecuting women for the abomination of murdering their children, we are begging for God's judgment. And we have it.
4. The law fails to hold civil magistrates accountable.
The Act does not hold the authorities liable for their decisions (or lack thereof). It abdicates their responsibility to provide equal justice and to protect an innocent victim from being murdered. Under the Act, the people are forced to be the enforcers. Romans 13:4-7 says of our rulers:
For he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer. 5 Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath but also for the sake of conscience. 6 For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. 7 Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed. Romans 13:4-7
The Texas Heartbeat Act allows the elected avenger of God to desert his post. Why then be in subjection? Why then pay taxes, if the ministers of God are not "attending to this very thing?" If we are to pay respect and honor to whom respect and honor are owed, the Texas Legislature has dropped its sword and is cowering behind the bushes, looking to us to protect it.
The Texas Heartbeat Bill is Procedurally Bad.
1. Abortions are still happening.
Fake news: journalists are pretending abortions cannot happen. Let us make it clear. They can and they are. Pastor Jon Speed witnessed the abortionist show up at the side door of a murder mill, completely unnoticed by a reporter who was filming outside the front door. The abortion mills are insisting that they are only providing ultrsounds to see how far along the women are. This is possible. But an abortionist is not required to be present during an ultrasound. So why is a highly-paid, professional hit man showing up, if not reporting for hit duty? Further, the next point drives home the fact that business could be -- and likely is -- still booming.
2. The quoted statistics about the number of abortions being prevented are false.
Students for Life has breathlessly reported that 85% of abortions are being halted in Texas. Abby Johnson tweeted that 150 babies would be saved every day.
Really? Not sure where they got that number, but Texas' own abortion statistics say otherwise. In fact, almost the opposite is true. 19,378 Texas abortions were done in the first 120 days of 2021. Out of that number, 15,743 (or 81% of the killings) were done at 8 weeks or less. Since pro life organizations and ultrasound experts agree that it might be possible to miss a beating heart for up to 8 weeks or even more (depending on the mother's size and the baby's location), that means 3,635 babies were killed after their heartbeats could be expected to be detectable. How many babies are protected by the Heartbeat Act? About 30 per day. 132 babies per day are still subject to execution. Obviously, the media and pro-aborts' claim that 6 weeks is "before many women even know they're pregnant," is but another Texas Tall Tale.
While we praise God for every instance of a child being saved from death, we must point out that instead of 85% of Texas babies being saved, 81% of Texas babies are being thrown under the bus.
In Florida, it's even worse. 89% of our precious Florida babies murderd by abortion are killed during their first 8 weeks of life.
So who would be protected by a Texas-style heartbeat bill here in Florida? The pro-life politicians, that's who. It certainly isn't the tiny humans. - Bonnie Cannone, Abolish Abortion Florida
3. The killer is trusted to be honest about a heartbeat.
With virtually no documentation other than a written notation in the medical record, Texas gives all credence to the hired assassin. They are not required to show any proof that they even performed a test, such as a video recording or a photograph of the ultrasound. So get this straight. A butcher for hire, who is going to lose hundreds of dollars every time he finds a heartbeat, is the one in charge of hunting for it, and he need not show any proof that he did or did not find it. Just a note on the chart. God help our babies.
4. There is limited ability to gather evidence that would prevail in a lawsuit.
This is an aspect of this bill that we have not seen discussed in any other articles. Just how is a layperson supposed to gather enough evidence to even bring -- let alone to prevail in -- a lawsuit against a provider or accomplice to an abortion? It's not like John Q. Public can go barging in to the kill mill and become an eyewitness to the ultrasound or the abortion. From the parking lot, they see a woman with a visible baby bump going into the killinic. They don't know her name or anything about her, other than a description. They don't have access to medical records without a subpoena. So without a patient name, whose records are they to subpoena? Without a willing informant, Mr. Public is going to have a devil of a time subpoenaing witnesses and records to prove his case. It's a shot in the dark. And unless a subpoenaed witness actually does tell the truth, or the medical records confirm "Yep, we aborted a baby with a beating heart," The abortionist will prevail.
5. The Act is far from settled law.
The Supreme Court allowed the law to stand -- but not because they deemed it to be constitutional. They ruled on a procedural error because Whole Woman's Health was trying to sue a Texas judge who might hear a case. He was not a proper party to sue, as he is not in charge of enforcing the Act. (See the Supreme Court's opinion HERE.) SCOTUS emphatically made it clear that they are NOT sustaining the constitutionality of the law. In so doing, SCOTUS is practically begging the plaintiff to try again to "properly present" their case to get the law overturned.
And although SCOTUS declined to issue a stay in the matter, a Texas district court judge has already issued a temporary restraining order preventing Texas Right to Life and “Jane/John Does 1-100” from suing Planned Parenthood because of the unrealistic financial burden created by having to defend itself and being unable to recoup attorneys' fees. So the entire Act can be considered to be currently on hold, because it is assumed that other judges would follow this precedent. See that ruling here:
6. Attorneys are already hard at work, scheming work-arounds to defeat the law.
Deputizing the entire public at large is a novel scheme that calls for a novel solution. The best legal minds are plotting diligently, and no doubt will soon come up with ideas on how to defeat the Texas Heartbeat Act. Here's one idea below. By the time the Florida Legislature would consider our own bill, the Texas Act is likely to have been defeated. https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/09/07/opinion/how-massachusetts-case-could-end-texas-abortion-law/
7. The abortionist has a built-in defense available.
It's written right into the bill. If a lawsuit will “create an undue burden” – in the eyes of the Supreme Court – on a woman's ability to obtain an abortion -- at least until Roe v. Wade or Planned Parenthood v. Casey are overturned, a lawsuit cannot go forward. As we all know, SCOTUS has an extremely liberal definition of "undue burden." So the bill is saying basically, "we don't want you to do abortions, but we promise we won't stop you if it 'burdens' women." This is known as a "trigger" clause. It provides a loophole to murder until enforcement is "triggered" by an event - and almost invariably, the event is the overturning of Roe.
8. The Act places a $10,000 price tag on the life of a human being.
No amount of money can compensate for the tragic loss of a human life. But if someone were to murder you, would you want them to get more of a fine than the cost of a high-mileage used car? Bradley Pierce, Texas attorney and Executive Director of Abolish Abortion Texas, published a video entitled The Hard Truth about the Texas Heartbeat Act. In that video, he said:
A $10,000 fine for brutally butchering a precious, living, legally innocent, vulnerable human being who is being fearfully and wonderfully knit together by God, in His very own image, in the same place that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ chose to make His entry into this world: His mother's womb. Ten thousand dollars. Ten K. That sickens me! I don't think we should celebrate that. I think we should be ashamed of putting a pitiful price like that on someone so priceless.” Bradley Pierce
9. It encourages “self-managed” abortions.
It may be technically illegal to perform or assist in a post-heartbeat abortion in Texas, but it certainly is not illegal to have one. Women are exempt from the law. They will not be prosecuted for killing their child up to birth, so there is nothing in the Texas Heartbeat Act to stop them from continuing their quest to kill their babies. Numerous organizations inside and outside Texas and the US are willing to send abortion pills to women by mail. Feminists have organized "abortion parties" to support one another and even to instruct a woman how to perform a suction abortion on herself. What is to stop them? It's "legal."
10. The Act does not make abortion a crime for anyone.
It specifically says the government cannot prosecute. The abortionist and accomplices get a cheap fine. The mother gets a green light. Giving females a license to kill is discriminatory, immoral, and unconstitutional.
11. The Texas Heartbeat Act bows to judicial supremacy.
Like all pro life murder regulations to date, the Texas Heartbeat Act bows down and curtseys unquestioningly to the Supreme Court's iniquitous ruling. It does not defy tyrants. It does not nullify unconstitutional law. Instead, it defers to and legitimizes Roe v. Wade and every one of the subsequent SCOTUS rulings that have insisted upon protecting women in the act of homicide.
14. The Texas Legislature KILLED a bill of abolition.
Before passing the Texas Heartbeat Bill, a legislator proposed another bill known as the Abolition of Abortion in Texas Act. That bill would have outlawed and criminalized ALL abortion -- from conception, without exception -- as murder. Instead, REPUBLICAN PRO LIFE LEGISLATORS killed the bill of abolition so they could pass the Texas Heartbeat Bill - a bill that is being hailed as miraculous, but which is virtually nothing more than just another Texas Tall Tale.
For all these reasons, we MUST NOT ALLOW the ridiculous Texas Heartbeat Act to travel to Florida! CALL YOUR STATE REPRESENTATIVE and STATE SENATOR TODAY AND LET THEM KNOW YOU ABSOLUTELY OPPOSE any kind of heartbeat bill: Texas-style or otherwise. We must let them know that we demand NOTHING LESS than the complete criminalization of ALL ABORTION for all parties – from conception, without exception, and that OUR 2022 VOTES will hinge upon the passage of a righteous bill of abolition, such as The Abolition of Abortion in Florida Act! Together, with the providence of God, we can #AbolishAbortionFlorida and the world. God help us.