Texas Republicans pushing abortion ban after 6 weeks

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas would ban abortions after as early six weeks — before many women know they are pregnant — and allow private citizens to enforce the rule through civil lawsuits against doctors and others under a measure given preliminary approval by the GOP-dominated state House on Wednesday.

The move would have Texas join about a dozen other Republican-led states to pass so-called “heartbeat bills" which have been mostly blocked by federal courts.

A similar version has already passed the state Senate, and any differences will have to be negotiated before the bill goes to Republican Gov. Greg Abbott. The governor has suggested he would sign it into law.

The Texas bill would ban abortions after the first detection of an embryonic “heartbeat." Advanced technology can detect an electric signal flutter as early as six weeks into a pregnancy, even though the embryo isn't yet a fetus and doesn't have a heart. An embryo is termed a fetus beginning in the 11th week of pregnancy, medical experts say.

“Once that heartbeat is detected, that life is protected,” said Rep. Shelby Slawson, the House sponsor of the measure said before the bill passed 81-63. “For far too long, abortion has meant the end of a beating heart.”

A unique provision in the Texas bill prohibits state officials from enforcing the ban.

Instead, it allows anyone, even someone outside of Texas, to sue a doctor or anyone else who may have helped someone get an abortion after the time limit, and seek financial damages. Supporters of the measure hope that provision would survive the legal challenges that have doomed similar laws elsewhere..

“The Texas Heartbeat Act is novel in approach, allowing for citizens to hold abortionists accountable through private lawsuits. The bill does not punish women who...