Texas' 6-week abortion ban lets private citizens sue in an unprecedented legal approach

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

Last edited Wed Sep 1, 2021, 05:59 AM - Edit history (2)

Source: CNN

2:34 PM ET, Tue August 31, 2021

(CNN) A Texas state law that bans abortion after as early as six weeks into the pregnancy could provide the playbook for red states to pass extreme abortion restrictions -- without having to wait for the Supreme Court to revisit Roe v. Wade.

The measure -- signed into law by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott in May and set to go into effect on Wednesday -- prohibits abortion providers from conducting abortions once a fetal heartbeat is detected. It would effectively outlaw at least 85% of the abortions sought in the state, according to opponents of the law, since that point is around six weeks into the pregnancy, before some women know they're pregnant.

The law was passed amid a slew of restrictions that were approved by GOP legislatures across the country this year, after the confirmation of Justice Amy Coney Barrett jerked the Supreme Court further to right and made it more likely that the court will scale back or reverse entirely Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision that enshrined a constitutional right to an abortion before the fetus is viable.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/31/politics/texas-six-week-abortion-ban-supreme-court-explainer/index.html

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This takes place at midnight tonight! (Tuesday at midnight.)

Unless the SCOTUS affirmatively stops it tonight, abortion will be effectively ended in Texas starting at 12:01 Wednesday. All it will take is for the SCOTUS to do nothing. Close up their offices, lock the doors, drive home and eat dinner. Then one minute after midnight it will be possible for anyone -- anyone -- to bring a civil action against an abortion provider, anyone on their staff, the patient, rape counselors, the person who drove them to the clinic. If that person does not answer the suit, the defendant has to pay them at least $10,000 plus attorneys fees. This will have an incredible deterrent effect.

Here's an article in the Houston Chronicle:

The fight for the future of abortion care in the country's second-biggest state veered toward a chaotic climax Tuesday, with an eleventh-hour plea over Texas' sweeping new ban hanging before the U.S. Supreme Court and abortion providers scrambling to respond to patients, many of whom could be left without ways to safely access the procedure by the morning.

It was a scene almost certain to delight the law's most ardent backers, who have spent years searching for a way to sidestep the legal hurdles that have stalled other Texas laws restricting abortion access. With Senate Bill 8 set to take effect on Wednesday, they may have found their answer.

The law, signed this spring by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, empowers private citizens to sue doctors and others who help women obtain abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, or after a fetal heartbeat is first detected. Proponents hope the unusual enforcement approach will help the ban succeed where others have failed, making it hard to legally challenge the law.

As the liberal media outlet Slate put it on Monday, "SB 8 was designed as an Escher staircase for litigators."

more

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I this works as planned, we can expect every other Red state to put a similar law into effect.

[uppityperson]

1. 6 weeks? That's barely after a missed period, if you are regular.

[ancianita]

2. Texas Taliban, Inc.

[AllaN01Bear]

3. how does this pave roads ? pay for schools . more game playing .

[keithbvadu2]

4. A miscarriage is an abortion.

A miscarriage is an abortion. Could anyone sue the woman claiming she abused her body to cause a miscarriage?

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

7. So are certain types of birth control.

One anti-abortion woman said that once abortion is outlawed they are going to ban birth control.

These guys won't be satisfied until . . . wait, they're never going to be satisfied!

[oldsoftie]

11. THAT would be tough these days.

People would gladly ship you some. Hell I'd do it and I'm a guy.
But stopping BC would hit too close for a lot of these so called pro lifers. A lot of them sleep around!

[keithbvadu2]

13. Pro-life to conservatives/republicans is a myth.

Republicans are in favor of killing living babies and have done so.

Pro-life to conservatives/republicans is a myth.

The supposed pro-lifers cared naught when the state of Texas (republican gov, republican Prez) deliberately killed living baby Sun Hudson against the mother's wishes because he was an inconvenience to the state.

It is not a matter of life to the supposed pro-lifers.

It is a matter of control.

[oldsoftie]

19. Wasnt that the case where the mother said the actual SUN fathered the baby?

[Polybius]

5. The clock has struck midnight in Texas

The US Supreme Court has done nothing, so it is now the law of the state.

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

8. We can expect other red states to follow. nt

[oldsoftie]

10. They may still take up this case though

But they SHOULD have stayed the law until then

[electric_blue68]

6. 😔😥🤬🤬🤬

[oldsoftie]

9. A citizen wouldnt have "standing" to file such a suit

Since the courts have shown that standing is a major issue to them

[Deminpenn]

12. Can't wait for the first woman outed by

vigilantes to sue them for monthly child support.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

14. "A reminder that if we focus on shifting power in state legislatures we can get at the root ..."

Kevin M. Kruse Retweeted

A reminder that if we focus on shifting power in state legislatures we can get at the root where these laws begin.

Eyes away from DC, this is happening in state capitols.

Link to tweet

[mainer]

15. A lot of Republican women get abortions

Wait till they find out the leopard is eating their faces, too.

[Old Crank]

16. I wonder

I wonder just what the penalty is if you accuse someone incorrectly?
Can this law be used to abuse people you don't like? And what would the ramifications be for false charges?

[haele]

17. Civil suit, not criminal.

Unless a private individual is constantly in court suing a particular company or another individual for any number of things, it's not considered harassment. Ambulance chasers know this trick well and can make a lot of money on specious or frivolous lawsuits before they finally hit a judge that will toss them out of a civil court.

On edit - it depends on the state. Some states have laws penalizing false claims, but the burden of proof that the claim was knowingly false can be pretty high.

If a woman went to a clinic for a miscarriage, a "hyper-christian office gossip" may jump to the conclusion it was for an abortion, and file suit, lose, and then claim because of HIPPA, how was she to know it was a miscarriage? All she needs to say is the baby was no longer there, and she always thought that formerly gal was flighty anyway, so a reasonable christian would be expected to think she had an abortion...

Haele

[BlueWavePsych]

18. Tex-ass Shariya law ...

[Griefbird]

20. An aborted fetus doesn't have a heartbeat.

So a lawsuit is moot.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

21. Texas Abortion Law Takes Effect Pending Supreme Court Action

U.S.

Texas Abortion Law Takes Effect Pending Supreme Court Action

Justices haven’t acted on request by abortion providers to block the state’s so-called fetal-heartbeat law

By Brent Kendall, Jess Bravin and Jacob Gershman
https://twitter.com/brkend
[e-mail]
https://twitter.com/JessBravin
[e-mail]
https://twitter.com/jacobgershman
[e-mail]
Updated Sept. 1, 2021 3:16 pm ET

WASHINGTON—A new Texas abortion law that bars the procedure after about six weeks of pregnancy took effect Wednesday, after the Supreme Court didn’t act on an emergency request by clinics and abortion-rights advocates to block it.

When the court said nothing Tuesday by midnight, the ban officially went into force, making it the most restrictive abortion law in effect in the U.S. The high court still could choose to act soon.

The state law, enacted in May with an effective date of Sept. 1, dictates that a physician can’t knowingly perform an abortion if there is “a detectable fetal heartbeat,” which includes embryonic cardiac activity that appears about six weeks into a pregnancy.

An abortion ban so early in a pregnancy—at a stage before some women realize they are pregnant—conflicts with current Supreme Court precedent, which forbids states from proscribing the procedure before the fetus is viable—that is, able to live outside the mother’s womb.

The matter, which only arrived at the Supreme Court on Monday, is centered on the preliminary question of what rules should apply in Texas while abortion providers continue to challenge the ban in lower courts. That issue came to the justices after a federal appeals court halted trial-court proceedings in the case for now and declined to block the ban from taking effect.

Abortion providers in Texas were squeezing in patients and performing procedures until minutes before midnight when restrictions took effect, said Amy Hagstrom Miller, the founder and chief executive of Whole Woman’s Health, which operates clinics in Texas and has previously challenged Texas abortion restrictions before the Supreme Court.

All four Whole Women’s Health clinics in Texas were open Wednesday and operating in accordance with the new law, Ms. Miller said. The clinics are able to offer ultrasounds and make plans to provide the procedure for anyone without detectable embryonic activity.

{snip}

—Jennifer Calfas and Sarah Toy contributed to this article.

Write to Brent Kendall at [e-mail], Jess Bravin at [e-mail] and Jacob Gershman at [e-mail]

[Skittles]

22. best way to stop this stuff is VOTE FOR DEMOCRATS

we really, really need to VOTE THESE FASCISTS OUT

[Tree Lady]

23. Which is exactly why they did a restricted

Voting bill at same time. Republicans can only win by cheating and stopping voting now.

[Skittles]

24. absolutely correct

[DeeNice]

25. I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around...

how they get past the standing to sue issue. Can someone explain what mechanism in this law allows for unrelated and unaffected parties to sue?

[Jimbo S]

26. How many young women

will stop having intercourse with their boyfriends? Small impact? Significant? Just thinking.

How many would take the risk of an unwanted pregnancy?

Many young men about to learn a hard lesson.