RELIGION HEADLINES

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(SRN NEWS) – Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has announced that a Houston-area midwife has been arrested and accused of providing illegal abortions.  This is the first time authorities have filed criminal charges under the state’s near-total abortion ban.  Maria Margarita Rojas (ROH-hahs) has been charged with the illegal performance of an abortion, a second-degree felony, as well as practicing medicine without a license.  Rojas is accused of illegally operating at least three clinics where illegal abortions were performed on women. 

Abortion advocates and other liberal groups are complaining that it’s too difficult for underage girls to get abortions without their parents’ knowledge.  Since 2022, 11 states have enshrined abortion in their constitutions.  But seven of those states still require girls under the age of 18 to get consent from or notify a parent before having an abortion.  Pro-life advocates point out that children under the age of 18 have to get parental permission for a wide range of activities, most of them much less grave than abortion. 

A Texas lawmaker has introduced a bill to change the language in the state’s abortion ban, clarifying when exceptions can be made to save the life of the mother.  Republican state Senator Bryan Hughes, who authored the new bill, helped pioneer the state’s abortion ban.  The ban outlaws the procedure as soon as an unborn baby’s heartbeat can be detected.  Hughes’ legislation would still require women to have a medical emergency for doctors to perform an abortion and requires doctors to receive training about the law.  The Texas legislature is expected to take up the measure this week. 

Kentucky lawmakers have passed a bill that protects so-called conversion therapy.  The measure would eliminate Democratic Governor Andy Beshear’s executive order forbidding licensed counselors from helping anyone under the age of 18 abandon the homosexual lifestyle.  The bill would also outlaw the use of Medicaid funds to pay for sex-change operations on children.  Beshear has denounced the legislation, but it passed with veto-proof majorities and will become law.  A growing number of states are passing similar measures.