When Texas lawmakers banned abortions after 20 weeks in 2013, the ban wasn't totally devoid of compassion for women. There were a few exceptions to the 20-week ban; for instance, abortions "that are performed on unborn children with severe fetal abnormalities" would still be allowed. For Representative Matt Schaefer, a Tyler Republican, that wasn't good enough. Schaefer is now proposing an amendment to a bill that originally had little to do with abortion but is now getting abortion-crazy, as bills tend to do here. Under Schaefer's measure, abortions performed 20 weeks after conception "on the basis that the fetus has a severe and irreversible abnormality" would no longer be allowed.

Schaefer, of course, has a nice, flowery way of describing fetal abnormalities. The phrase "dead babies" is notably absent from Schaefer's speech introducing the amendment on the House floor:

"In my opinion, this practice just doesn't value what God values, and God values that life inside the womb. God values that child who is defenseless. And when you think about a baby inside its mother, it's the most defenseless among all of our people. But a baby that has abnormalities is even more defenseless, and we have seen a trend, not just in the United States, but in other parts of the world, that these babies, because they may have severe disabilities, are being aborted for that reason."

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