Abortion rights groups brace for arrival of Texas 'trigger law'
Abortion is now illegal in Texas at any point during pregnancy under the state’s so-called trigger law that goes into effect Thursday.
State lawmakers adopted the measure last year to automatically outlaw abortion once the U.S. Supreme Court decided to overturn Roe v. Wade and end federal constitutional protections for the procedure.
The court did so in June, ruling that the U.S. Constitution does not grant a right to abortion and state legislatures should be allowed to set their own limits on the procedure at any point in a pregnancy.
Abortion is already effectively outlawed in Texas under a statute predating Roe v. Wade. And the procedure had been severely curtailed in Texas since Sept. 1, when a state law took effect prohibiting abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. The new trigger law, however, will increase criminal and civil penalties for violations.
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Abortion providers across Texas stopped performing abortions within hours of the Supreme Court’s decision in June, citing legal concerns about the status of abortion restrictions already on the books in the state. Now, they’re bracing for implementation of the trigger law Thursday and turning to federal courts for protection.
Reproductive rights groups, including several abortion funds that help pay for people’s procedures and associated costs, filed a federal class-action lawsuit Tuesday looking to prevent future prosecution from Texas officials should the groups continue to help Texas residents travel across state lines to obtain legal abortions.
“They all want to resume their prior activities as permitted by the United States Constitution and seek intervention from this Court to allow them to do so safely,” the lawsuit reads.
Abortion funds and other organizations that offer support to people seeking abortions cited threats from state lawmakers and anti-abortion advocates to pursue charges against them for the work they do, even if the abortions their clients obtain happen in states where the procedure is legal.
Under the new state law, it is now a first-degree felony to perform an abortion in Texas, the second most serious level of offense in the state’s penal code. If convicted, doctors could face up to life in prison and civil penalties of at least $100,000 per illegal abortion. All penalties are limited to the person who performs an abortion — the pregnant person is exempt from prosecution under the law.
“Texas law in a post-Roe world has already been written,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton wrote in an advisory outlining the scope of the law. “Now that the Supreme Court has finally overturned Roe, I will do everything in my power to protect mothers, families, and unborn children, and to uphold the state laws duly enacted by the Texas Legislature.”
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The law does not include exceptions in cases of rape or incest, and it only permits doctors to perform abortions if a pregnant person’s life is in danger or there is “a serious risk of substantial impairment of a major bodily function unless the abortion is performed.”
Texas was one of 13 states with a trigger law on the books when Roe v. Wade was overturned. Some were implemented immediately after the decision. The Texas law was written to go into effect 30 days after an official judgment in the case.
Trigger laws in Tennessee and Idaho also go into effect Thursday. The Biden administration sued Idaho in early August challenging that state's law, arguing that it violates federal law requiring hospitals that receive Medicaid dollars to perform emergency medical care, which can include abortion services.
The lawsuit filed Tuesday by abortion funds is the first known legal challenge to the trigger law in Texas.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Abortion-rights groups prepare for Texas trigger law
