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Texas · Through 89th 2nd Called Legislative Session, 2025

Tex. Health and Safety Code § 171.202: LEGISLATIVE FINDINGS.

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Where this section sits in the code
  1. HEALTH AND SAFETY CODE
  2. TITLE 2. HEALTH
  3. SUBTITLE H. PUBLIC HEALTH PROVISIONS
  4. CHAPTER 171. ABORTION
  5. SUBCHAPTER H. DETECTION OF FETAL HEARTBEAT

The legislature finds, according to contemporary medical research, that:

(1) fetal heartbeat has become a key medical predictor that an unborn child will reach live birth;

(2) cardiac activity begins at a biologically identifiable moment in time, normally when the fetal heart is formed in the gestational sac;

(3) Texas has compelling interests from the outset of a woman's pregnancy in protecting the health of the woman and the life of the unborn child; and

(4) to make an informed choice about whether to continue her pregnancy, the pregnant woman has a compelling interest in knowing the likelihood of her unborn child surviving to full-term birth based on the presence of cardiac activity.

Added by Acts 2021, 87th Leg., R.S., Ch. 62 (S.B. 8), Sec. 3, eff. September 1, 2021.

Collected 2026-08-27T01:47:17Z. Source file · JSON

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