The Texas House has advanced a bill that would allow private citizens to sue prescribers, makers, and distributors of abortion pills inside and outside the state.
A revised version of Texas’s HB 7 passed the state legislature’s lower chamber in an 82-to-48 vote Thursday night during Gov. Greg Abbott’s (R) second special session. It is now on its way to the Senate.
Under the bill, almost anyone can sue a distributor or manufacturer and receive at least $100,000 in damages if their lawsuit is successful. Texas women who take abortion medication to end a pregnancy cannot sue under the bill.
Texas hospitals, doctors who live and practice exclusively in the state, and anyone who manufactures or distributes abortion medication for use in treating a medical emergency, an ectopic pregnancy, miscarriage, or stillbirth, could not be sued, according to the bill’s current language.
A similar bill passed the Texas state Senate but failed to make it through the House earlier this year, according to The Texas Tribune.
Texas law bans abortion except in cases to save the life of the pregnant person, and violators face harsh penalties such as $100,000 in fines or life in prison.
Supporters and opponents of the bill believe the legislation will restrict the flow of abortion medication into Texas, which is available to residents via telehealth providers residing outside of the Lone Star State.
“It is already illegal to traffic abortion drugs in Texas under the Human Life Protection Act, and our priority remains enforcement of that and other laws,” said Amy O’Donnell, communications director for Texas Alliance for Life, an anti-abortion group.
“The revised version of HB 7 provides another tool against illegal abortion-by-mail while including vital protections for women.”
O’Donnell added that the organization supports the revised version of the bill since it now protects women’s privacy by barring the disclosure of personal or medical information in court filings and prohibits some abusers from being able to sue, including people accused of domestic violence or of impregnating a person through sexual assault.
Opponents argue the bill stretches Texas’s severe restrictions on abortion far beyond its state borders.
“This is yet another attempt to attack abortion access for everyone — not just in Texas, but nationwide,” said Astrid Ackerman, staff attorney at the Center for Reproductive Rights.
The bill, she added, is part of a “scare campaign.”
“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,” said Blair Wallace, policy and advocacy strategist on reproductive freedom at the ACLU of Texas.
“We believe in a Texas where people have the freedom to make decisions about our own bodies and futures.”
