Sharp Disagreements at Fetal Remains Hearing

Sharp Disagreements at Fetal Remains Hearing

In the aftermath of a car accident in 2014, Denee Booker was told by her doctor that the child she was carrying had died in utero. To avoid complications, she agreed with her doctor's suggestion to remove the fetus instead of waiting for it to "naturally pass," Booker told state health officials during a Thursday hearing on a proposed state rule that would require the cremation or burial of fetal remains.

texastribune.org

After Texas's anti-abortion law was struck down by the Supreme Court, Texas health officials are trying to further restrict abortions, but this time by administrative rule.

The proposed rule change prohibits hospitals, abortion clinics and other health care facilities from disposing of fetal remains in sanitary landfills, instead allowing only cremation or interment of all remains — regardless of the period of gestation — even in instances of miscarriages.

Packed into a conference room at the Texas Department of State Health Services, health care providers, funeral directors and reproductive rights activists testified that the change would do little to improve public health and could be burdensome to women who miscarry and those seeking abortions. A contingent of anti-abortion activists and two Republican lawmakers endorsed the measure, which was quietly proposed in July at the directive of Republican Gov. Greg Abbott.

The article goes into some of the history and arguments (both for an against) the proposed rule.