As reported by the National Catholic Register, Texas has instituted a heartbeat bill (prohibiting abortion after a heartbeat can be detected from the fetus) with a new twist: the law will be enforced by private citizens rather than the government.
As noted in an earlier National Catholic Register article, this new enforcement strategy has been successfully used by the Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn movement which has resulted in thirty-six cities banning abortion to date. Legal challenges against these sanctuary city laws have been successfully defeated so far so that all the sanctuary laws have remained in place.
Previous heartbeat bills have not fared so well.
We will see if the Texas heartbeat bill can defeat its legal challengers like the Sanctuary City laws have done.
