How the New Texas Abortion Law Turns the Public Into Enforcers
Demonstrators outside the state Capitol building in Austin, Texas.
Photographer: Sergio Flores/Getty ImagesThe strictest abortion law in the U.S. took effect on Sept. 1 in Texas. It’s seen by abortion-rights supporters as an end-run around Roe v. Wade -- the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion nationwide -- and a possible blueprint for other states to make policy by encouraging neighbors to sue each other. Texas’ nearly two dozen abortion clinics reported turning away hundreds of patients in the first days after the law took effect, but one doctor came out publicly to declare that he had performed an abortion in defiance of the law.
It prohibits a physician from performing an abortion from the moment cardiac activity is detected, something that generally occurs around six weeks after conception -- which is before a lot of people realize they’re pregnant, according to abortion providers. More broadly, the law bars any individual from “aiding and abetting” an abortion after six weeks, which includes helping pay for it or merely trying to help a woman obtain one. The law’s only exception is for abortions that are necessary for treatment of a medical emergency. Abortions of pregnancies caused by rape or incest are among those prohibited after six weeks. So are abortions prompted by fetal health problems that make it unlikely the child will survive after birth.