Texas “heartbeat” abortion ban could lead to flood of lawsuits

The bill now heads to the desk of Governor Greg Abbott, who is expected to sign it into law. In a tweet on May 5, Abbott said, “I have signed 11 laws to protect innocent lives from abortion but more must be done” and thanked the bill’s sponsors for “working so hard to get this to my desk.”

The legislation, Senate Bill 8, adds Texas to a group of more than a dozen other states that have passed so-called “heartbeat” bans, all of which have been blocked by federal courts. But Texas’s version has a unique enforcement structure.

Unlike the legislation in other states, Senate Bill 8 doesn’t task the state of Texas with enforcing the ban. Instead, according to the bill’s text, it creates a “private civil right of action” that allows anyone to bring civil action against medical professional who performs an abortion in violation of the law as well as those 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.”

Critics of the law say that could include clinic staff, counselors or clergy who offered guidance, a friend who drove the patient to their appointment, or even a parent who paid for the procedure.

“This bill essentially opens the floodgates to allow anyone who is hostile to abortion to sue doctors and clinics, consuming their resources and forcing them to shut down,” said Nancy Northup, the head of the Center for Reproductive Rights, a law firm that challenges anti-abortion regulations globally. “We will pursue all legal options to prevent this law from taking effect.”

Those found in violation of the law could face penalties starting at $10,000 per instance. An amendment added last week bars someone who impregnated the patent through rape or incest from suing, but did not clarify that family members or friends of that individual would be barred as well. Under the law, patients themselves cannot be sued.

“The Texas Heartbeat Act is the strongest Pro-Life bill passed by the Legislature since Roe v. Wade,” said Rebecca Parma, the senior legislative associate at Texas Right to Life, an anti-abortion rights group, in an interview with The Associated Press.

The law is slated to take effect this September.

Texas’s “heartbeat” ban comes amid a particularly active state legislative session for the issue nationwide, experts say. According to an analysis by the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights, more than 500 abortion restrictions, including 146 bans, had been introduced by state lawmakers as of April 30. Among those, 61 have been signed into law.

“The year 2021 is well on its way to being a defining one in abortion rights history,” said Lauren Cross and Elizabeth Nash, the authors of the report.

Many of those measures have been blocked by federal courts, but their supporters say that’s the point. Buoyed by a conservative majority at the Supreme Court, states have passed dozens of anti-abortion restrictions with the hopes that they will reach the high court and give the justices an opportunity to overturn Roe v. Wade.