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Texas implemented a controversial new rule requiring fetal remains be buried or cremated. Previously, the remains were disposed as medical waste. This comes after months of fierce opposition from abortion rights advocates and the medical community. According to Vice, reproductive rights advocates say the original process imposed “an unnecessary restriction and cost on abortion providers”.
This new rule, which will go into effect on December 19th, mandates that all aborted fetal tissue must be buried regardless of how long it has been gestating. The rules state it can either be buried directly after the abortion, or it can be buried or scattered after it has been incinerated; rather than bringing it to a sanitary landfill.
Texas Health Commission specified that the burial requirement does not include miscarriages or abortions that happen at home. According to the Texas Tribune, these new rules will take effect in hospitals, abortion clinics and other health care facilities.
Reproductive rights advocates told the New York Times that these measures are only going to serve further restrictions of abortion access and do nothing to protect the health of the patient.
“This rule provides no public health benefit, just like the state’s abortion restrictions that the U.S. Supreme Court struck down in June,” Blake Rocap, legislative counsel at NARAL Pro-Choice Texas stated.
The Tribune reported in July that Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican, cited the proposal in a fundraising email as evidence of his commitment to protect the “rights of the unborn” and “turn the tides” against abortion in the state.
“I believe it is imperative to establish higher standards that reflect our respect for the sanctity of life,” he said in the email, which The Tribune published in full. “This is why Texas will require clinics and hospitals to bury or cremate human and fetal remains.”