* * * VERY URGENT ALERT 12/08/2017 * * *
Please Urge the Texas Health and Human Services Commission to Adopt Rules Requiring Humane Disposition of the Bodies of Babies Who Die from Abortion
The Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) has published proposed rules regarding the humane disposition of the bodies of unborn children after elective abortions. Texas Alliance for Life strongly supports the proposed rules. The rules are open for public comment by email and at the public hearing, and they are expected to be considered for adoption as soon as late December.
The proposed rules are published in the Texas Register here.
We urge you to encourage adoption of the rules. Here’s how:
1. Send an email in favor of the proposed the rules to the HHSC by Monday, December 18, 2017. This will take less than five minutes. See a sample email below:
Sample Message — Please use your own words.
Email: Regulatory_Rules_Comments@hhsc.state.tx.us
Please specify “Comments on Chapter 697 Proposed Rules” in the subject line.
I strongly support the proposed rules to prevent abortion facilities from using garbage disposals and flushing the babies’ remains into municipal sewer systems or burying the remains in a municipal landfill. I urge the commission to adopt the proposed rules.
Current rules allow abortion providers, including Planned Parenthood and Whole Woman’s Health, to dispose of the bodies of precious unborn babies in those very inhumane manners.
Each abortion is a terrible tragedy. Our state should not allow abortion providers to treat these innocent victims like medical waste.
Your name
Your address
2. Attend and testify in support of the proposed rules on Monday, December 11, 2017, from 9 AM to Noon at the Health and Human Services Commission in Austin. Each person will have three minutes. Here is the link for more information.
The hearing may be webcast. In addition, Texas Alliance for Life will stream the hearing on our Facebook page.
Background
Since the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973, the Supreme Court prevents states from protecting unborn babies from abortions before the baby is viable. However, the State of Texas has a moral obligation to prevent the victims of abortion from being disposed of like medical waste.
In 2017, the Texas Legislature passed Senate Bill 8 by Senator Charles Schwertner (R-Georgetown) and Representative Cindy Burkett (R-Sunnyvale) to ban Planned Parenthood’s documented trafficking of baby body parts.
That bill included important language by Representative Byron Cook (R-Corsicana) to require the humane disposition of the bodies of babies who die from abortion by cremation or internment. SB 8 prevents inhumane methods that treat the remains of the unborn baby as mere medical waste.
Abortion providers oppose these changes. The rules would no longer allow abortion providers to dispose of the remains of aborted babies by “grinding and discharging into a sanitary sewer system” or to dispose of the remains in a municipal landfill after incineration, which current law permits.
The Texas Health and Human Services Commission must adopt new rules to implement SB 8. The HHSC is accepting comments through December.
Please let us know you have sent your emails.
Send comments to info@texasallianceforlife.org.