SB 537 Virtual Ban on Abortion in Texas

Senate Bill 537, filed by Sen. Bob Deuell (R-Greenville), Sen. Donna Campbell (R-New Braunfels) and Sen. Charles Schwertner (R-Georgetown), is currently in the Health and Human Services Committee.

If SB 537 passed, it would require all abortion facilities to follow the same standards that outpatient surgical center abide by.  According to Planned Parenthood, Texas currently has 42 abortion providers and right now only five are equipped to meet the new standards that would be required under SB 537.

In an interview with CBS 11, Danielle Wells, spokesperson for Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas, said,  “we’re very concerned. SB 537 does absolutely nothing to protect women in Texas by subjecting clinics to onerous and medically unnecessary regulations.”

CBS 11 also reported, “women deserve a certain standard of care in Texas,” says Becky Visosky, spokesperson for Catholic Pro-Life Committee. “There’s no reason why surgeries that are provided at abortion facilities should somehow be provided at a lower standard of care than any other surgical facility here in the state of Texas.”

According to Ruth Wiley, M.D., a Fort Worth Ob/Gyn in private practice, and other local physicians, this bill seems to be centered on ideological opposition to abortion than women’s health safety.  “Plastic surgeons routinely do much more invasive thing in their private offices and are not subject to these regulations. Why is this procedure singled out? Because it’s about women.”

If SB 537 receives a two-thirds vote in the Senate, the act would take effect September 1, 2014.