[JURIST] The Texas Senate [official website] approved bills on Wednesday that would prevent doctors from encouraging abortions to avoid lawsuits from birth defects and to require doctors to ensure a fetus is deceased before performing certain procedures. Texas Bills 25 and 415 [texts] now move to the Texas House of Representatives [official website]. The bills have been met with protests [Huffington Post report]. In addition Representative Jessica Farrar [official profile] has introduced a bill [Times report] to fine men $100 for masturbating to protest the recent anti-abortion legislation.

Abortion restrictions have been a much contested issue in Texas and other states in recent years. In February a judge for the US District Court for the Western District of Texas issued a preliminary injunction [JURIST report] to halt Texas’ plan to cut Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood. Much of the discussion is about when a proposed state law regulating abortion can be considered an undue burden on access to abortion. The US Supreme Court struck down [JURIST report] a Texas law in June 2016, that imposed certain requirements on abortion clinics and doctors. A regulation mandating the burial of fetal remains in Texas was challenged [JURIST report] in court in December by abortion rights groups. Sparks temporarily suspended the regulation in December and extended the suspension [JURIST reports] in January.