We told you about the douche-abolical plots by abortion foes in many states to require that fetal remains from abortion procedures be given full burial or cremation. The mandate would make abortion infinitely more unaffordable and unavailable.
Now anti-choice fear-mongers are gearing up to push for these ghoulish laws with scare tactics that go from the ridiculous to the fucking ridiculous. And when it comes to anti-abortion zealots, no place does fucking ridiculous quite like Texas. Carol Everett from the anti-abortion cabal The Heidi Group has been on newscasts in Texas claiming that without mandatory burial or cremation of fetal remains, Texans will be in danger of catching HIV or various STD’s from the water supply. No, seriously. It’s right here.
That would make some sense if we were talking about disposing of fetal remains in municipal reservoirs, office coolers, or in the margaritas at Ruby Tuesday. But Texas and all states already have strict guidelines about the disposal of medical waste that abortion providers must comply with. (That sort of “the Plague is coming!” tactic is standard operating procedure for Carol Everett. Here’s a clip of her defending TRAP laws by invoking the “Ebol-eye” outbreak!)
Texas is currently trying to impose the mandatory burial or cremation of fetal tissue by making it a new rule from the Texas Department of State Health Services. That avoids all the messiness of actually passing legislation, but the public does get to comment on rule changes in Texas before they go into effect. The hearings for the “bury the fetus” rule took place on August 4th.
And of course, for every medical professional who spoke to oppose the rule, the anti-choice forces put up an “activist” to provide misinformation, lies, fear, and the kind of paranoid fantasy that abortion opponents love to spin. David Walls, the Director of Operations at Texas Values provided a statement saying in part: “The rules will ensure that the bodies of aborted babies are treated with the respect they deserve and are no longer callously treated like medical waste and disposed of by grinding and discharging into a sanitary sewer system.”