Texas judge issues TRO on rule requiring burial or cremation of aborted babies

A federal judge prevented a rule requiring burial or cremation of aborted fetuses in Texas from being implemented, at least until January.

Austin-based U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks issued a temporary restraining order on rules — which was set to take effect on Dec. 19 — that mandate health clinics to bury or cremate bodies from abortions and miscarriages.

The Center for Reproductive Rights and other groups advocating abortion rights filed a lawsuit on Dec. 12, arguing that the rules prevent women access to safe and legal abortion by hiking the costs of undergoing the procedure. The groups also charge that the rules cause women shame and encourage stigma surrounding abortions and miscarriages.

"We are pleased that the court has prevented these outrageous restrictions from going into effect in Texas, where they would have created immediate and dangerous new barriers on women's access to health care," David Brown, CRR senior staff attorney said in a statement released to the public.

Sparks is allotting two days in January to hear testimonies, and he is expected to give a ruling by Jan. 6.

The new rules were proposed in July just a few days after the U.S. Supreme Court shot down laws that would have reduced the number of abortion clinics in Texas to 10 from more than 40 in 2012.

Currently, most clinics throw fetal remains in sanitary landfills, with the cost of doing so factored into the price of the abortion procedure.

Proponents of the rules pushing for the burial or cremation of the infant bodies call for preserving the dignity of the unborn babies, and at the same time, preventing the spread of diseases coming from improper disposal of the dead fetuses.

Meanwhile, the Texas Catholic Conference has announced plans to provide free burial for fetal remains at Catholic cemeteries. In a statement, TCCB Executive Director Jennifer Carr Allmon said, "To bury the dead is a work of mercy." He added, "As Pope Francis reminds us, the victims of our 'throwaway culture' are 'the weakest and most fragile human beings.' It is right and just for us to be assisting the victims of abortion."

Apart from more than 50 Catholic cemeteries in Texas, the TCCB also aims to recruit other cemeteries, funeral homes, and mortuaries to their cause.