What amounts to a near-total abortion ban went into effect last night in Texas which prohibits most abortions after a fetal heartbeat can be detected (about six weeks into pregnancy). Several health experts note that many women don’t even know they are pregnant at that point.
MSNBC's Julia Ainsley notes how strict Texas' new abortion law is
"It means you can sue an Uber driver who drives someone to an abortion clinic. These are laws stricter than what we have in place for someone who would drive someone who is about to commit an act of terrorism" pic.twitter.com/oPdzYCaO5y
— Lis Power (@LisPower1) September 1, 2021
From the New York Times:
The law, known as Senate Bill 8, amounts to a nearly complete ban on abortion in Texas, one that will further fuel legal and political battles over the future of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that established a constitutional right to abortion.
The law makes no exceptions for pregnancies resulting from incest or rape.
Supreme Court precedents forbid states from banning abortion before fetal viability, the point at which fetuses can sustain life outside the womb, or about 22 to 24 weeks.
Instead of state officials enforcing the new law, it allows private individuals to sue anyone who performs the procedure or “aids and abets” it.
So, if a family member or even an Uber driver helps a woman to an abortion clinic, they could be sued. Counselors or staff members at clinics, anyone who might pay for the procedure, they all are potential defendants.
Those filing the lawsuits don’t have to have any connection to the situation – they could be complete strangers. And they are being offered a $10,000 “bounty” for turning people in.
Abortion providers in the state urged the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene saying that the near-total abortion ban “would immediately and catastrophically reduce abortion access in Texas, barring care for at least 85 percent of Texas abortion patients.”
Gov. Greg Abbott signed the legislation into law in May.
So theoretically a man in Texas could impregnate a woman and then turn her in for seeking an abortion and be rewarded with a 10 grand bounty?
— NoelCaslerComedy (@caslernoel) September 1, 2021
Texas Republicans:
We don’t have the right to mandate whether or not you wear a mask.
That’s your body, your choice.Also Texas Republicans:
We have the right to mandate what a woman does with her own body.
That’s her body, our choice.— Jo (@JoJoFromJerz) September 1, 2021
Some of the new Texas laws that went into effect today
• 6-week abortion ban
• 21+ can carry handguns without training or license
• limit teachers from discussing systemic racism in class
• pro teams required to play national anthem before games https://t.co/S4bG4ZDDsC— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) September 1, 2021
I’m thinking about the Black, brown, low-income, queer, and young folks in Texas. The folks this abortion health care ban will disproportionately harm.
Wealthy white folks will have the means to access abortion care. Our communities won’t.
— Cori Bush (@CoriBush) September 1, 2021