- Texas joins dozens of red states banning abortions after a heartbeat is detected
- More than 90% of abortions take place in first 13 weeks of a woman’s pregnancy
- Sometimes a woman doesn’t know she is pregnant by six weeks
- The law allows pro-life activists to sue doctors who carry out abortions
- The law comes as the Supreme Court agreed last week to take up a Mississippi case that could scale back Roe v Wade
- Pro-abortion activists are concerned a favorable outcome for the pro-life side of that case could pave the way for more abortion restrictions
Texas became on Wednesday the largest state with a law that bans abortions before many women even know they are pregnant – without exceptions for rape or incest.
There is also unique provision in the new law that essentially leaves enforcement to private citizens through lawsuits against doctors or anyone who helps a woman get an abortion, including nurses, front desk staff or even the person who drove the patient to the abortion appointment.
Republican Governor Greg Abbott signed the bill Wednesday that puts Texas in line with more than a dozen other states that ban abortions after the detection of a fetal heartbeat, which can happen as early as six weeks into the pregnancy.
Federal courts have so far mostly blocked the measures from taking effect.
The new Texas law will go into effect in September if it is not first stopped by the courts.
The Supreme Court, however, agreed this week to take up a Mississippi law that bans abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy.
Abortion rights activists worry that a ruling favorable to the state could lay the groundwork for allowing even more abortion restrictions, including so-called fetal heartbeat bills.
The law signed by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott puts Texas in line with more than a dozen other states that ban abortions after the detection of a fetal heartbeat, as early as six weeks. Federal courts have mostly blocked the measures from taking effect
Texas’ version of the heartbeat law is unique in that it prohibits state officials from enforcing the ban.
Instead, it allows anyone – even someone outside Texas – to sue an abortion provider or anyone else who may have helped someone get an abortion after the limit, and seek financial damages of up to $10,000 per defendant.
Critics say that provision would allow abortion opponents to flood the courts with lawsuits to harass doctors, patients, nurses, domestic violence counselors, those who drive women to clinics or even a parent who paid for a procedure.
Texas law currently bans abortion after 20 weeks, with exceptions for a woman with a life-threatening medical condition or if the fetus has a severe abnormality.
The new law could ban an abortion as soon as six weeks into the pregnancy and would not have an exception for pregnancies that are a result of incest or rape.
More than 90 percent of abortions take place in the first 13 weeks of a woman’s pregnancy, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The Supreme Court will probably hear the Mississippi case in the fall, with a decision likely in spring 2022.
It will be the first abortion-related case heard by the latest addition to the court, Justice Amy Coney Barrett, whome pro-abortion activists claim could be a threat to a woman’s right to choose.
During her confirmation, critics and even some progressive lawmakers claimed Coney Barrett, a devout Catholic, would not be able to act as an impartial in certain cases due to her religion. They even insisted she recuse herself from some cases like those involving the death penalty or abortion.
Texas law currently bans abortion after 20 weeks, with exceptions for a woman with a life-threatening medical condition or if the fetus has a severe abnormality
‘It is appalling that in defiance of public opinion and public health, state politicians remain committed to controlling our bodies,’ Planned Parenthood Action Fund President Alexis McGill Johnson said in a statement on Wednesday.
Texas’ new law will allow citizens to bring a civil lawsuit against anyone who ‘knowingly engages in conduct that aids or abets the performance or inducement of an abortion, including paying for or reimbursing the costs of an abortion through insurance or otherwise,’ if the abortion violates the provisions of the law.
In an open letter earlier this month, some 200 Texas physicians voiced concern that the bill would expose doctors to the risk of ‘frivolous lawsuits that threaten our ability to provide healthcare.’
‘Regardless of our personal beliefs about abortion, as licensed physicians in Texas, we implore you to not weaponize the judicial branch against us to make a political point,’ the letter said.
Landmark Roe v. Wade ruling, 1973
In 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court recognized a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion in Roe v. Wade. The landmark ruling legalized abortion nationwide but divided public opinion and has been under attack ever since.
The case was filed in 1971 by Norma McCorvey, a 22-year-old living in Texas who was unmarried and seeking a termination of her unwanted pregnancy.
Because of state legislation preventing abortions unless the mother’s life is at risk, she was unable to undergo the procedure in a safe and legal environment.
So McCorvey sued Henry Wade, the Dallas county district attorney, in 1970. The case went on to the Supreme Court, under the filing Roe vs Wade, to protect McCorvey’s privacy.
Supreme Court Decision
The Supreme Court handed down the watershed 7-2 decision that a woman’s right to make her own medical decisions, including the choice to have an abortion, is protected under the 14th Amendment.
In particular, that the Due Process Clause of the the 14th Amendment provides a fundamental ‘right to privacy’ that protects a woman’s liberty to choose whether or not to have an abortion.
The landmark ruling saw abortions decriminalized in 46 states, but under certain specific conditions which individual states could decide on. For example, states could decide whether abortions were allowed only during the first and second trimester but not the third (typically beyond 28 weeks).
Impact
Among pro-choice campaigners, the decision was hailed as a victory which would mean fewer women would become seriously – or even fatally – ill from abortions carried out by unqualified or unlicensed practitioners. Moreover, the freedom of choice was considered a significant step in the equality fight for women in the country. Victims of rape or incest would be able to have the pregnancy terminated and not feel coerced into motherhood.
However, pro-lifers contended it was tantamount to murder and that every life, no matter how it was conceived, is precious. Though the decision has never been overturned, anti-abortionists have prompted hundreds of states laws since then narrowing the scope of the ruling.
One such was the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act signed by President George W. Bush in 2003, which banned a procedure used to perform second-trimester abortions.
McCorvey lived a quiet life until the 1980s when she revealed herself to be Jane Roe
Norma McCorvey (Jane Roe)
Following the ruling, McCorvey lived a quiet life until the 1980s when she revealed herself to be Jane Roe. McCorvey became a leading, outspoken pro-abortion voice in American discourse, even working at a women’s clinic where abortions were performed.
However, she performed an unlikely U-turn in 1995, becoming a born again Christian and began traveling the country speaking out against the procedure.
In 2003, a she filed a motion to overturn her original 1973 ruling with the U.S. district court in Dallas. The motion moved through the courts until it was ultimately denied by the Supreme Court in 2005.
McCorvey died at an assisted living home in Texas in February 2017, aged 69.
‘The Heartbeat bill’
Multiple governors have signed legislation outlawing abortion if a doctor can detect a so-called ‘fetal heartbeat,’ part of a concerted effort to restrict abortion rights in states across the country.
Under the ban doctors will be prosecuted for flouting the rules.
Abortion-rights supporters see the ‘heartbeat bills’ as virtual bans because ‘fetal heartbeats’ can be detected as early as six weeks, when women may not be aware they are pregnant.
Anti-abortion campaigners have intensified their efforts since Donald Trump was elected president and appointed two conservative justices to the US Supreme Court, hopeful they can convince the right-leaning court to re-examine Roe v. Wade.
Georgia, Ohio, Missouri, and Louisiana have enacted ‘heartbeat laws’ recently, and Alabama passed an even more restrictive version in May, amounting to a near total ban on abortion from the moment of conception. Other states have similar legislation pending.
Similar laws has also been passed in Arkansas, Mississippi, North Dakota, Iowa and Kentucky, though they have been blocked by courts from going into effect as legal challenges have been brought against them.
