US physician Dr Ron Bryce, whose pro-life convictions grew after once treating a shortlived aborted baby, has launched a service to help Texan property owners prepare deeds that bar abortions on their land, in perpetuity.
Bryce and his wife Lydia have founded Pro-Life Properties of Texas, LLC to offer "a service that would empower (people) to save babies' lives, one property at a time," the Catholic News Agency reported.
The service is available to all property owners in Texas and allows them to restrict abortion related activities on any property. Individuals can deed restrict residences, stand alone buildings, shopping centres or raw land.
"Many would be surprised to find out there are Texas abortion clinics in former residences, in former stores and offices right down the street from schools and churches and in shopping centres where you go to pick up a loaf of bread and a gallon of milk," Bryce said.
The service's online process, which costs US$77 per property, reportedly takes little time. The deed restriction is filed in the proper county within a month and a copy of the document is sent to the owner.
Dr Bryce said that abortion became "deeply personal" to him after he had to treat an aborted baby boy who had briefly survived the procedure, in the 1980s in a county hospital in Fort Worth, Texas, the Catholic News Agency report said.
"Although strong enough to live awhile outside the womb, he was too young to continue to live after being separated from his mother. His lungs were not developed adequately to support his respiratory needs," Dr Bryce said.
"There was nothing medical science could do to save him. Death was inevitable, but I was to care for him until that time."
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New service to help property owners bar abortions from their land - forever (Catholic News Agency)