Published July 23, 2025
Each year in the United States, a small portion of children will be diagnosed in utero with congenital abnormalities. A fraction of these children will have abnormalities deemed “lethal” or “fatal.” I know this devastating experience first-hand. In February of 2021, my third child, David, was diagnosed in utero with a set of severe congenital abnormalities that were expected to claim his life. We began to plan a funeral for a baby we’d not yet met.
Texas law now ensures that parents like me—parents of children diagnosed in utero with life-threatening congenital abnormalities—are given critical information regarding palliative care during pregnancy. This information includes access to “medical, social, and mental health care” and “maternal-fetal medicine specialists, obstetricians, neonatologists” and others “focused on alleviating fear and pain” to ensure “a supportive environment” during pregnancy and birth.
Gov. Greg Abbot signed Texas’s Perinatal Palliative Care Act into law on June 20, 2025, effective beginning Sept. 1. Former Texas State Sen. Kelly Hancock, who was recently appointed to Acting Comptroller and Chief Clerk of the Comptroller’s office, had introduced the bill earlier this spring.
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Rachel Roth Aldhizer is a Visiting Fellow in the Life and Family Initiative at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. Her reporting and commentary on disability policy, abortion legislation, assisted reproductive technologies and other issues impacting American families have appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, National Review, First Things, and numerous other publications.
