AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas has become the largest state with a law that that bans abortions before many women even know they are pregnant.
The measure signed Wednesday by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott puts Texas in line with more than a dozen other states that have so-called heartbeat bills. The measures ban abortions after the detection of a fetal heartbeat, usually after six weeks.
Federal courts have mostly blocked the measures from taking effect. But the Supreme Court agreed this week to take up a Mississippi anti-abortion law and that is seen by abortion rights activists as a broader threat to women’s constitutional right to an abortion.