An advocacy group filed a lawsuit Monday seeking to prevent Texas from requiring hospitals and abortion clinics to bury or cremate fetal remains rather than disposing of them in a sanitary landfill, as they most often currently do.
Whole Woman's Health is the advocacy group that filed the lawsuit in federal court in Austin.
The new state rule to require fetal remains of miscarriages and abortions to be treated as a deceased person and be buried or cremated was pushed into motion by Gov. Greg Abbott back in July.
Abby Johnson is a pro-life supporter with an interesting background.
"After witnessing a live ultra-sound guided abortion where I watched a 13th week old baby fight and struggle for his life during the abortion," Johnson, a former Planned Parenthood employee, now speaks out and encourages other women to be pro-life.
"I had been lied to by Planned Parenthood. There was humanity in the womb," Johnson said. "And I realized then that abortion is never the solution."
Johnson actively supports the new state rule as she believes it is right and humane.
"I know what happens to aborted babies. I know that many times they are ground up in industrial garbage disposals," Johnson added.
On the contrary, Whole Woman's Health CEO Amy Hagstrom Miller stands strong in her organization's reasoning to fight the new regulation.
"It's very offensive to women and targets the women specifically. And it really has no added health benefits or public health benefits but rather just sort of focuses on shaming and stigmatizing women for having a termination procedure or having to deal with a miscarriage," Hagstrom Miller said.
"I think the real reason that they are fighting this is because it is giving humanity to the unborn child. And they want to fight that at all cost," Johnson said.
The new rule is set to take effect throughout the state of Texas on Dec. 19, but the lawsuit may cause a delay.
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