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Alex Briseno<\/a><\/span> – May 19, 2021<\/p>\n AUSTIN \u2014 Gov. Greg Abbott signed legislation Wednesday that abortion opponents call a milestone measure to protect life, while others decry it as one of the most extreme restrictions in the nation and vow to fight it in court.<\/p>\n The law, proposed by Sen. Bryan Hughes, R-Mineola, sets a ban on abortion the moment a fetal heartbeat is detected, which is as early as six weeks, before many are aware of their pregnancy. It goes into effect Sept. 1.<\/p>\n The law also allows any private citizen to file a civil lawsuit against abortion providers, and anybody who \u201caids or abets\u201d the performance of a procedure in violation of the ban. The law includes an exception for medical emergencies, but not for pregnancies that resulted from cases of rape or incest.<\/p>\n One amendment prevents a person who impregnated an abortion patient through rape, incest or sexual assault from bringing a lawsuit forward under this measure.<\/p>\n Abbott, who made his support of the bill clear before it received final approval, signed the proposal alongside Hughes, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Rep. Shelby Slawson, R-Stephenville, the House sponsor. They were joined by dozens of Republican lawmakers at the governor\u2019s mansion, and Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr., D-Brownsville, a longtime abortion opponent.<\/p>\n \u201cOur creator endowed us with the right to life and yet millions of children lose their right to life every year because of abortion,\u201d Abbott said before signing the bill. \u201cIn Texas, we work to save those lives. That\u2019s exactly what the Texas Legislature did this session.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe heartbeat bill is now law in the Lone Star State,\u201d Abbott added.<\/p>\n https:\/\/www.dallasnews.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Alex Briseno – May 19, 2021 AUSTIN \u2014 Gov. Greg Abbott signed legislation Wednesday that abortion opponents call a milestone measure to protect life, while others decry it as one of the most extreme restrictions in the nation and vow to fight it in court. The law, proposed by Sen. Bryan Hughes, R-Mineola, sets a … Continue reading Gov. Abbott signs near-complete ban on abortion in Texas<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[19],"tags":[43,11324,7813,6881,15820,6018,15819,15821,496],"class_list":["post-19786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-watching","tag-abortion","tag-fetal-heartbeat","tag-gov-greg-abbott","tag-lt-gov-dan-patrick","tag-rep-shelby-slawson","tag-right-to-life","tag-sen-bryan-hughes","tag-sen-eddie-lucio-jr","tag-texas"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8fAkI-598","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/setapartbytruth.org\/wordpress-watchman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/setapartbytruth.org\/wordpress-watchman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/setapartbytruth.org\/wordpress-watchman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setapartbytruth.org\/wordpress-watchman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setapartbytruth.org\/wordpress-watchman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19786"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/setapartbytruth.org\/wordpress-watchman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19786\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19788,"href":"https:\/\/setapartbytruth.org\/wordpress-watchman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19786\/revisions\/19788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/setapartbytruth.org\/wordpress-watchman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setapartbytruth.org\/wordpress-watchman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setapartbytruth.org\/wordpress-watchman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}