Texas Family Code - Fam Â⧠151.002. Rights of a Living Child After an Abortion or Premature Birth

Protesters demonstrate outside the Texas Capitol in Austin in belatedly May in response to a neb that outlaws abortions subsequently a fetal heartbeat is detected. Sergio Flores/Getty Images hide caption

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Protesters demonstrate exterior the Texas Capitol in Austin in late May in response to a bill that outlaws abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected.

Sergio Flores/Getty Images

Editor'south note: On Friday, the Supreme Court allowed challenges to the Texas law to move forward, without halting the law in the meantime. Read about the latest courtroom opinion on the abortion police force here .

With the U.S. Supreme Court mum, a new police went into effect in Texas that bans abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy. That's well earlier many women even know they are significant.

The police force allows private citizens to sue abortion providers and anyone else who helps a adult female obtain an abortion — including those who give a adult female a ride to a clinic or provide fiscal assistance to obtain an abortion. Individual citizens who bring these suits don't demand to bear witness whatever connection to those they are suing.

The law makes no exceptions for cases involving rape or incest.

Hither's why the law is 1 of the strictest abortion bans in the country.

What does the Texas law prohibit?

It bans abortion as soon equally cardiac activity is detectable. That's around six weeks, which is before a lot of people know that they're significant. Other states accept tried to do this, but those laws accept been challenged past ballgame-rights groups and blocked by federal courts again and once again.

How is this police force dissimilar from other states' efforts?

Groups who oppose abortion rights have pushed for this Texas law, hoping that it volition be harder for federal courts to knock information technology down. Instead of requiring public officials to enforce the law, this police allows individuals to bring ceremonious lawsuits confronting abortion providers or anyone else plant to "aid or abet" illegal abortions.

This law empowers individuals to enforce an abortion ban. How would that work in practice?

Anyone who successfully sues an ballgame provider under this law could be awarded at least $ten,000. And to set up for that, Texas Right to Life has set up what it calls a "whistleblower" website where people tin submit anonymous tips virtually anyone they believe to be violating the law.

"These lawsuits are not against the women," says John Seago with Texas Right to Life. "The lawsuits would be against the individuals making money off of the abortion, the abortion industry itself. And so this is not spy on your neighbor and see if they're having an abortion."

In a federal lawsuit challenging this, a coalition of ballgame providers and reproductive rights groups said the law "places a compensation on people who provide or aid abortions, inviting random strangers to sue them."

While Texas doctors say they will comply with the new police, they must address patients' concerns and questions, including nigh how to get an out-of-country procedure. Sergio Flores/Getty Images hide caption

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Sergio Flores/Getty Images

While Texas doctors say they will comply with the new law, they must address patients' concerns and questions, including about how to go an out-of-state procedure.

Sergio Flores/Getty Images

What does the police hateful for patients and abortion providers?

Dr. Bhavik Kumar, a family medicine doctor who works for Planned Parenthood in Houston, says the police force creating a lot of dubiousness for patients and providers. But Kumar insists he will comply.

The ban, though, will likely hateful a lot of questions from patients nearly how they tin get an abortion outside of Texas, Kumar said.

"I know that there are many people who don't take to ability to brand information technology out of land ... The logistics and ability to do and then is non an option for them," he said. "So I'm actually concerned nigh what's going to happen to people."

Dr. Ghazaleh Moayedi, an OB/GYN, told NPR over the weekend that patients are apprehensive. "They understand that the abortion that they're having this week, terminal week, the week before, is something that they wouldn't be able to accept next week. They've been asking nigh information technology and asking, you know, 'If I were here in September, would I be able to get this?' "

What does this mean for ballgame laws in other states?

If the federal courts ultimately allow this constabulary to stand up, information technology's very probable that other conservative states volition motility to laissez passer similar laws. Seago, with Texas Correct to Life, said his organization is working with activists in multiple states who are eager to replicate this model if it succeeds in blocking admission to most abortions in Texas.

"It is nonetheless a bit untested. We're still working on what these lawsuits are going to look like if the industry decides to break the police force," Seago said. "So information technology is a new model that we're still testing out."

What happens next?

Multiple court challenges to the constabulary are underway, including several lawsuits in state courtroom in Texas targeting anti-abortion-rights groups including Texas Right to Life. Abortion rights groups are also organizing protests and demonstrations in Texas in opposition to the law.

A spokeswoman for Texas Correct to Life told NPR that no lawsuits against abortion providers are imminent, and abortion providers say they will comply with the law equally long as it is in effect.

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Source: https://www.npr.org/2021/09/01/1033202132/texas-abortion-ban-what-happens-next

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