By Dave Andrusko
How would you guess an abortion clinic would “celebrate” the 49th anniversary of the hideous Roe v. Wade decision? Why handing out free abortion pills, of course.
Dr. Franz Theard, who owns the Women’s Reproductive Clinic in Santa Teresa, New Mexico, told the El Paso Times “We want to help all women protect their reproductive rights. Residents of East Texas are under duress from the new abortion law. We want to help. We are fortunate to live minutes from the blue state of New Mexico where reproductive choice is legal.”
Mislabeled the Respect New Mexico Women and Families Act, the 2021 legislation overturned the last remaining (thought not enforced) pro-life law.
By contrast, Texas’s S.B.8. protects unborn children whose hearts have begun to beat, usually at about 6 weeks of pregnancy. The law took effect September 1 and except for a day or two has been saving babies every day since.
The Center for Reproductive Rights wanted the 5th Circuit to return the case to the trial judge– U.S. District Judge Robert L. Pitman in Austin– who blocked enforcement of the law. In an opinion that minced no words, he characterized the law as an “unprecedented and aggressive scheme to deprive its citizens of a significant and well-established constitutional right.”
Instead the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the state of Texas and sent the Heartbeat Law to the Texas Supreme Court
The effect of decision is that the law is “thus likely to remain in effect for the foreseeable future, following a decision by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans to send the case to the Texas Supreme Court,” according to CBS News.
The narrow issue before the Texas Supreme Court is “whether the state officials specified in the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision last month have the power to enforce the abortion law,” The New York Times Adam Liptak reported. The Supreme Court, in its December 10th opinion, said the legal challenge could continue but only against Texas licensing officials who oversee nurses, physicians and pharmacists.
Meanwhile Dr. Theard gave out abortion pills to women who were up to ten weeks pregnant.