What Does Court Of Criminal Appeals Ruling Mean For Legal Abortion?
By Vince Leibowitz on Nov 26, 2007 in Notable Court Decisions
A Court of Criminal Appeals ruling on fetal murder last week garnered the obligatory media attention, but few seemed to pay serious attention in part, I suspect, because the AP story and every other coverage included an interesting tidbit in the lead graf or somewhere pretty close to the top:
Texas laws allow the killing of a fetus to be prosecuted as murder, regardless of the fetus’ stage of development, but they do not apply to abortions, the state’s highest criminal court has ruled. [Emphasis mine.]
Is this, however, disinformation?
The folks at Dungeon Diary seem to think so:
Though this was about a criminal case, abortion foes will seize this as legal precedent to begin pressing for criminal prosecutions of doctors offering abortions. Just wait for the dust to settle. I doubt that these same folks who have decried “Activist Judges” will have little but praise for this decision.
I’ll admit, I had similar thoughts. I felt that this decision would be a back door excuse. And, even as savvy as Capitol Annex is with these kind of things, I’ll admit I just glossed over it because I thought that, surely, AP had examined all sides of the issue, perhaps consulted with a legal expert, and made this determination.
However, I do believe in the 81st Texas Legislature, we’ll see anti-abortion legislation solely based on this CCA decision.
The 2003 law criminalizing injury or murder of an “unborn child” simply changed the definition of “individual” to include a fetus. It specifically, in the law, exempts abortion under this definition.
So while they may make a run at it in the 81st, the AP article is accurate.
clarify - the 2003 TEXAS law.