For Release: July 7, 2016

Texas Leaders Sink to New Low, Push Measure That Would Require
Fetal Tissue to Be Buried or Cremated
TexasJust four days after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down two Texas
abortion restrictions, Texas leaders are pushing a measure that would require
abortion providers to cremate or bury fetal tissue, further placing a financial
burden on those seeking abortion.
"This is a new low for our state's leaders who are committed to making
abortion inaccessible and shaming Texans who have abortions," Heather
Busby, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Texas said. "A person who
needs an abortion will unfairly bear the burden of these new regulations and
every abortion patient deserves to be treated with dignity and respect.
"This is a frightening preview of the avalanche of anti-abortion legislation
that Texas lawmakers will propose next session," Busby said. "Enraged by the
Supreme Court's smack down of Texas anti-choice lawmakers' false reasons
for pushing additional burdens to abortion access, our state's decision
makers couldn't even go four days without coming up with a new tactic that
puts an unnecessary regulation on abortion providers and increases the
burdens and costs for people seeking abortion. Once more, the state has
punished some of our most vulnerable, those women struggling the most to
feed their children and provide for their families. Texas lawmakers should be
focused on helping the children already born by providing a quality
education, reducing our abysmal rates of child poverty and our highest-inthe-nation uninsured population."
The Health and Human Services Commission proposed the new rule on July
1, 2016, sneaking it in right before the holiday weekend. The public can
submit comment on the measure any time before August 1, 2016 by
emailing allison.hughes@dshs.state.tx.us and specifying "comments on
special waste from health care facilities."
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Contact: Zoey Lichtenheld, NARAL Pro-Choice Texas, zoey@prochoicetexas.org, o: (512) 4621661, m: (512) 920-2046