#equalprotectionforposterity Texas House Bill 2 divides unborn children into two classes of persons: those who feel pain, and those who do not. The bill then provides full protection only to unborn children who are claimed to feel pain. SECTION 1. (a) (2) the state has a compelling state interest in protecting the lives of unborn children from the stage at which substantial medical evidence indicates that these children are capable of feeling pain[.] Children who are supposedly not old enough to feel pain are dehumanized and therefore left unprotected. The Texas Penal Code clearly identifies all children in the womb as persons (Title 1, Chapter 1, Sec. 1.07.), without regard to gestational age, or to any sensory ability or supposed awareness. All are protected equally in Sec. 1.07, without distinction. The proposed House bill ignores current law. Rather than equally protect all, the bill creates a prerequisite physical condition to qualify for full protection: a measurable sensation of pain. This arbitrary standard violates the constitutional guarantee of equal protection of the law to all persons. The Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution instructs: "No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." H.B. 2 is clearly at odds with the Fourteenth Amendment, and is therefore unconstitutional, as it fails to equally protect all persons in their right to life. The bill is not justified in creating this new injustice, not even by the existence of injustice and contradiction in the current law. Texas Penal Code, Title 5, Chapter 19, Sec. 19.06 certainly qualifies as unjust and unconstitutional, and should be repealed. -- Siena Hoefling
Posted on: Wed, 03 Jul 2013 00:00:12 +0000
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