The measure that allows almost every civilian to sue out-of-state prescribers and others sending abortion drugs to Texas has earned first-round approval at the Capitol.
It is the first law of this kind in the country and will be part of the ongoing efforts for abortion enemies to fight Wide range of uses of pillsis used in most abortions in the United States, including states where abortion is illegal.
The bill passed in the House on Thursday, allowing the final vote to be voted next week in the Republican-controlled state Senate. If that happens, it will be up to Republican Gov. Greg Abbott to decide whether to sign it into law or not.
Below are some things you need to know about Texas laws and other legal challenges to abortion medications.
Texas Scale is a new approach to cracking down on pills
Even before the US Supreme Court in 2022, Roev. It overturned Wade and allowed the state’s abortion ban. Mifepristone Misoprostol – was the most common way to obtain abortion access.
Currently, Texas and 11 other states have banned abortions at all stages of pregnancy, and most of them banned most of them after the first six weeks or so of pregnancy, so pills are offering abortions in the US in an even more important way.
“We believe women need to be protected from the harms of chemical abortion drugs,” said Amy O’Donnell, a spokesman for the Texas Alliance for Life, who supports the bill. “They do harm to women, and their intention is to do harm to the fetus.”
Under the invoice, the provider may be ordered to pay $100,000. However, only pregnant women, or men who were pregnant with her or other relatives, were able to collect the full amount. Anyone who sues can receive just $10,000, and the remaining $90,000 goes to charity.
major Reflecting the 2021 Texas Act This uses the prospect of a lawsuit from a civilian citizen to enforce abortion ban on a pregnancy of about six weeks after detecting fetal activity. The state also bans abortions at all stages of pregnancy.
The pill bill also includes provisions intended to prevent people with a history of domestic violence from collecting and banning the disclosure of women’s personal or medical information in court documents.
Annarupani, executive director of Fund Texas Choice, said the law is problematic as it is a group that helps women access abortions, including travelling to other states.
“It establishes a bounty hunting system to implement Texas laws beyond the state’s laws,” she said.
The law can open the door to further battles between states
While most Republican-controlled states have restricted or banned abortions over the past three years, most democratically controlled states have taken steps to protect access.
At least eight states also have laws that seek to protect prescribers who send abortion medication to women in states where abortion is prohibited.
There is already a legal battle that can challenge them with the same New York doctors.
Louisiana brought it Criminal charges against Dr. Maggie Carpenteraccusing pregnant minors of prescribing tablets. A Texas judge then ordered her to pay a $100,000 fine and legal fees for violating a telehealth-based prescription abortion medication ban. New York officials refuse He will either hand her over to Louisiana or take part in a Texas civil ruling.
If Texas laws are adopted and used, they certainly will spark a new round of legal battles over whether laws from one state can be enforced in another state.
“That’s very different from what was before,” said Greer Donley, a professor of law at the University of Pittsburgh, who studies the legal landscape of abortion.
Two key states attempt to enter the anti-Myfepristone legal battle
Texas and Florida (the country’s second and third most populous states) asked the courts last week to take part in a lawsuit filed last year by Republican Attorney Generals in Idaho, Kansas and Missouri. Makes Mifepristone less accessible.
These states argue that, like many abortion opponents, mifepristone is too dangerous to be prescribed via telehealth, and that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration needs to repeatedly approve and increase access.
US Supreme Court Last year, he unanimously rejected a lawsuit that had similar arguments, saying the anti-abortion physicians behind it lacked the legal status to file a lawsuit.
This week, more than 260 reproductive health researchers across the country submitted letters to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration checking the safety records of abortion drug Mifepristone. In the letter, researchers urge the FDA not to impose new restrictions on drugs and to make decisions based on the “science of the gold standard.”
FDA is also facing a A lawsuit from a Hawaiian doctor And Heathcare Association claims it’s too restricting Mifepristone
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Associated Press science writer Laura Ungar contributed to this article.
