{"id":714078,"date":"2021-09-03T16:05:24","date_gmt":"2021-09-03T20:05:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=714078"},"modified":"2021-09-03T16:05:32","modified_gmt":"2021-09-03T20:05:32","slug":"texas-state-senator-breaks-down-the-heartbeat-act-heres-how-its-enforceable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/texas-state-senator-breaks-down-the-heartbeat-act-heres-how-its-enforceable\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas State Senator Breaks Down The Heartbeat Act: Here\u2019s How It\u2019s Enforceable"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Ftexas-state-senator-breaks-down-the-heartbeat-act-heres-how-its-enforceable%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=714078&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><ul>\n<li><strong>Abortion advocates who insist Texas\u2019 Heartbeat Act places bounties on pregnant women\u2019s heads are misrepresenting the legislation, Republican Texas state Sen. Brian Hughes told the Daily Caller News Foundation Friday.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Anyone with evidence can bring a claim against a doctor, but for someone to be liable under the law, he said, that person would have to know that the mother intended to abort a baby that had a heartbeat.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>The most likely source would be an abortion clinic worker, a family member, or friend, or the mother herself, if she was coerced into the abortion, Hughes said.&nbsp;<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Abortion advocates who insist Texas\u2019 Heartbeat Act places bounties on pregnant women\u2019s heads are misrepresenting the legislation, Republican Texas state Sen. Brian Hughes told the Daily Caller News Foundation Friday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI want to be very clear,\u201d Hughes said. \u201cThere are no claims against the mother. We want to make sure folks realize that \u2026 I read a couple of places saying the mothers would receive criminal penalties. There are no criminal penalties in this bill at all. It\u2019s driven by private civil enforcement against the doctor and against people who aid and abet the doctor and in doing illegal abortions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The new&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2021\/08\/23\/attorney-lawsuit-texas-abortion-law\/\">law<\/a>, which bans abortions after a baby\u2019s heartbeat can be detected, has particularly angered abortion proponents as it allows \u201cany person\u201d to sue doctors, abortion clinics, or anyone who \u201cknowingly engages in conduct that aids or abets the performance or inducement of an abortion.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Those who sue over an abortion may be awarded $10,000 \u201cfor each abortion\u201d the defendant performed, induced, aided, or abetted in violation of the law. <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2021\/09\/02\/joe-biden-supreme-court-abortion-ruling-rule-of-law\/\">(RELATED: Biden: Supreme Court Abortion Ruling \u2018Insults The Rule Of Law\u2019)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Hughes, one of the original drafters and sponsors of the legislation, explained to the DCNF that the law requires a doctor to check for a fetal heartbeat before an abortion can be performed, and if a heartbeat can be detected, the abortion cannot go forward.<\/p>\n<p>For someone to be liable under the law, he continued, such as a nurse or a friend who drove a woman to get an abortion, that person would have to know that the mother intended to abort a baby that had a heartbeat.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe intent requirement is pretty specific as far as that goes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_7276036\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" readability=\"36\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7276036\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-7276036 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/GettyImages-1227111470-scaled-1.jpg\" alt srcset=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/GettyImages-1227111470-scaled-1.jpg 2560w, https:\/\/cdn01.dailycaller.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/GettyImages-1227111470-180x120.jpg 180w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/GettyImages-1227111470-620x413-1.jpg 620w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/GettyImages-1227111470-768x512-1.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/GettyImages-1227111470-1536x1024-1.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/GettyImages-1227111470-2048x1365-1.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\" \/><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-7276036\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cars drive on Congress Avenue in front of the Texas Capitol building on July, 14, 2020 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Montinique Monroe\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>If a doctor performs an abortion on a baby that has a heartbeat, the law is triggered, Hughes said, and anyone with evidence can bring a claim against the doctor. The most likely source would be an abortion clinic worker, a family member, or friend, or the mother herself, if she was coerced into the abortion.<\/p>\n<p>Many activists and advocates have said that \u201canybody can sue anybody\u201d under the new law, Hughes said, joking that as a practical matter, he cannot just wake up and say, \u201cOh, I think I\u2019ll sue an abortionist in Houston today.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou don\u2019t file a lawsuit unless you have evidence, unless you have a basis to file the lawsuit,\u201d he said. <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2021\/09\/01\/texas-taliban-abortion\/\">(RELATED: \u2018Texas Taliban\u2019: Abortion Law Is As Bad As Literal Terrorists, According To Liberal Activists)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s a couple reasons we went with private enforcement,\u201d he explained. \u201cYou may have seen in the end of 2020, several district attorneys from around the country, many of them in Texas, published an open letter to the media and said, \u2018You can pass a heartbeat bill, if you want to, but we will not enforce it.\u2019 We\u2019re talking about elected district attorneys sworn to uphold the law, sworn to enforce the law. And in Texas, our district attorneys in Dallas county and a number of other urban counties publicly stated, we will not enforce pro-life laws that you pass.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In a move that Hughes said has surprised Texas Republicans, abortion clinics in Texas have reportedly stopped performing abortions on babies with heartbeats.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll of our clinics are complying with the law,\u201d Amy Hagstrom Miller, chief executive of Whole Woman\u2019s Health, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.statesman.com\/story\/news\/politics\/state\/2021\/09\/01\/texas-abortion-clinics-new-law-planned-parenthood-whole-womans-health\/5683298001\/\">said<\/a> earlier this week. \u201cThe tragedy is that we can only provide abortions for about 10% of the people that we could provide abortions for yesterday.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe didn\u2019t expect them to all comply,\u201d Hughes said. \u201cWe thought we\u2019d have to sue them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact <a href=\"mailto:licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org\">licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Abortion advocates who insist Texas\u2019 Heartbeat Act places bounties on pregnant women\u2019s heads are misrepresenting the legislation, Republican Texas state Sen. Brian Hughes told the Daily Caller News Foundation Friday. &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-714078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=714078"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714078\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=714078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=714078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=714078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}