BRYAN, Texas — A 50-year-old precedent regarding a woman's right to get an abortion was overturned Friday, June 24 by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Roe Vs Wade continues to change a lot of the ways medicine, and health is now approached. On June 27, pharmacists across Texas received a notice explaining pharmacists now have to report any doctor that prescribes abortion medication.
According to a website called pregnancybirthbaby.org, a low-risk option instead of a surgical procedure is used for ending pregnancies earlier than 9 weeks, such as abortion pills. The restriction for Texas pharmacists will also include anyone trying to obtain the pills. Pharmacists or doctors could be fired and possibly receive jail time if found in violation.
Congressman Pete Sessions, a Republican, representing Texas' 17th Congressional District, explained his thoughts about the abortion changes in Texas.
Sessions said he understands the controversy around the issue, but it's a law that we're going to have to just deal with.
"More and more we're becoming in my opinion less the united states, and more we're becoming the 10th amendment and that is the state legislatures and the Governor of states who will make these decisions," Sessions said. "I can live with that, I think people are gonna have to live with that."
On September 21, 2021, the Texas HeartBeat Act went into effect, banning abortion after the detection of a fetus's heartbeat at around 6 weeks.
Sessions stated that he is on the side of the law, despite the fallout behind it.
According to KHOU, Roe vs. Wade's 'trigger law' was signed on June 16, 2021. That law was set to go into effect 30 days after the U.S Supreme Court overturns the Roe Vs Wade court case.
The trigger law considers an abortion performed in Texas as a felony unless the mother's life is at risk.
A KAGS reporter asked how lawmakers would enforce this law after those thirty days?
Sessions said the state will be very specific, and local pharmacies should follow and enforce that law.
"The state of Texas has a better idea about how they want to handle the direction that they would go and I trust the state of Texas to do that." said Sessions. "It's not like our citizens nor our physicians will have to guess, they will need to advise their patients of the law just as they would today."
The increase of contraceptive supplements like Plan B could be next in line. A local pharmacist, who preferred to stay anonymous, said abortion medication has already started to disappear from their shelves. In addition, the pharmacist said that there are regular items like heartburn medicine being pulled because the makeup is similar to some abortion medications.
The pharmacy owner described the pharmacy business right now as a time of panic. Navigating through the confusion caused by the information given to them and other colleagues.