![]() This also has no effect on the Human Life Protection Act, also known as the “trigger ban,” which went into effect on August 25 this year. 8 to be resolved by a court,” the release reads.Īccording to CRR, the court said that citizens do not have the right to file suit against those who perform or abet abortions “if they have not been directly impacted by the abortion services provided.” “This is the first and only case filed against a provider under S.B. He was then slapped with multiple lawsuits, some to enforce the law and some to force a court review of SB 8 and see if it could be overturned.Ī December 8 press release from the Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR), which is defending Braid in one of his suits, revealed that the judge had thrown the case out. “I fully understood that there could be legal consequences,” Braid wrote, “but I wanted to make sure that Texas didn’t get away with its bid to prevent this blatantly unconstitutional law from being tested.” Alan Braid penned an op-ed for the Washington Post claiming he performed an abortion on September 6 in violation of the law. Rather than empowering government agencies, it authorized private citizens to file civil suits against abortion providers or those who helped facilitate it in some manner - excluding fathers who conceived said children out of rape or incest - for up to $10,000.Īfter SB 8 took effect on September 1, 2021, OB/GYN Dr. What set the law apart was its enforcement mechanism. The Heartbeat Act, also known as Senate Bill (SB) 8, made abortion illegal after a fetal pulse is detected, around the sixth week of pregnancy. Legal experts have been divided on the strategy, and abortion rights advocates have said they plan to fight regardless.Austin, TX, DecemA state court on Thursday dismissed a lawsuit filed against a doctor who performed an abortion after the Texas Heartbeat Act went into effect. ![]() They have to basically sit and wait to be sued.” “Planned Parenthood can’t go to court and sue Attorney General Paxton like they usually would because he has no role in enforcing the statute. “It’s a very unique law and it’s a very clever law,” said Josh Blackman, a constitutional law professor at South Texas College of Law Houston. While abortion providers typically sue the state to stop a restrictive abortion law from taking effect, there’s no state official enforcing Senate Bill 8 - so there’s no one to sue, the bill’s proponents say. Proponents of the new law hope to get around the legal challenges that have tied up abortion restrictions in the courts. The person would not have to be connected to someone who had an abortion or to a provider to sue. Instead of having the government enforce the law, the bill turns the reins over to private citizens - who are newly empowered to sue abortion providers or anyone who helps someone get an abortion after a fetal "heartbeat" has been detected. ![]() It is the first major abortion case heard before the court's newly expanded conservative majority, and could have far-reaching effects for Texas, where a pending bill would outlaw nearly all abortions if the Supreme Court overruled Roe v. Supreme Court said it would hear a case concerning a Mississippi law that would ban most abortions after 15 weeks, and which could lead to new limits on abortion rights. The governor’s signature comes just after the U.S. The Legislature "worked together on a bipartisan basis to pass a bill that I'm about to sign that ensures that the life of every unborn child who has a heartbeat will be saved from the ravages of abortion.” “Our creator endowed us with the right to life and yet millions of children lose their right to life every year because of abortion,” Abbott said in a bill signing ceremony, captured on videos posted on social media. It would amount to an outright ban on abortions, as the six-week cutoff is two weeks after a missed menstrual cycle, opponents say. Abortion rights advocates have promised to challenge the new law, which they consider one of the most extreme nationwide and the strictest in Texas since the landmark Roe v.
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