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Texas could soon make it easier for state residents to sue providers of mail-order abortion pills, including out-of-state doctors, along with manufacturers and distributors.
Texas lawmakers in the state House voted along party lines Thursday to advance the bill to the Republican-led Senate, which is expected to vote on it next week.
In 2022, the state enacted a near-total abortion ban shortly after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark ruling that guaranteed the constitutional right to an abortion. That made providing abortion medication within the state illegal, but passage of this new legislation would take it a step further by allowing private citizens to sue providers who send abortion-inducing medication — such as mifepristone and misoprostol — into Texas from other states, even if no abortion took place or a plaintiff has no connection to anyone pregnant.
Blair Wallace, a policy and advocacy strategist on reproductive freedom at the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, told MSNBC on Friday that the bill “exports Texas’ extreme abortion ban far beyond state borders.”
“It will fuel fear among manufacturers and providers nationwide, while encouraging neighbors to police one another’s reproductive lives, further isolating pregnant Texans, and punishing the people who care for them,” Wallace said. “We believe in a Texas where people have the freedom to make decisions about our own bodies and futures.”
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a vocal opponent of abortion, has sent several cease-and-desist letters to what he calls “radical organizations” that have facilitated Texans’ abortion pill access.
Last week, Paxton said in a statement: “These abortion drug organizations and radical activists are not above the law, and I have ordered the immediate end of this unlawful conduct. This is a flagrant violation of both state and federal laws, and we are going to do everything in our power to protect mothers and unborn babies.”