Texas bill allowing residents to sue out-of-state abortion pill providers reaches governor | Texas

A measure that would allow Texas residents to continue suppliers of abortion pill outside the State qualified on Wednesday at the Governor’s office, Greg Abbott, setting up the state to be the first to try to repress the most common abortion method.

Supporters say it is a key tool to enforce the ban on state abortion, protect women and fetus.

Opponents consider it not only as another means of slowing abortion, but as an effort to intimidate the suppliers of abortion outside of Texas who comply with the laws of their states – and to encourage a form of vigilance.

If the measure becomes the law, it is almost certain to arouse legal challenges of supporters of abortion rights.

As part of the measure, Texas residents could pursue those who manufacture, transport or provide abortion drugs to anyone in Texas up to $ 100,000. Women who receive the pills for their own use would not be responsible.

Under the invoice, providers may be ordered to pay $ 100,000. But only the pregnant woman, the man who imbued her relatives or other relatives could collect the total amount. Anyone who continued could only receive $ 10,000, the remaining $ 90,000 going to the charity.

Legislators have also added a language to respond to the concerns that women are sent back to try to end pregnancies by men who raped them or abusive partners. For example, a man who imbued a woman by sexual assault would not be eligible.

The measure has provisions according to which the drafting to make public identity or medical details on a woman who receives the pills.

It was only when these arrangements were added, as well as the limit of a payment of $ 10,000 for people who are not themselves injured by abortion, that several large anti-abortion groups of Texas supported the bill.

The idea of ​​using citizens rather than government representatives to enforce abortion prohibitions is not new in Texas. It was at the heart of a 2021 law that reduced abortion over there for months before the United States Supreme Court paved the way for other state bans to take effect.

In previous law, citizens could receive $ 10,000 for having brought legal action against a supplier or anyone who helps someone get an abortion. But this measure did not explicitly try to continue the providers outside the State.

The pills are a delicate subject for adversaries of abortion. They were the most common method of abortion in the United States even before the 2022 Supreme Court decision which canceled Roe against Wade and authorized states to enforce abortion bans.

They have become even more widely used since then. Their availability is one of the main reasons why the number of abortions has increased nationally, even if Texas and 11 other states require abortion prohibitions at all stages of pregnancy.

The pills have continued to flow in part because at least eight states led by democrats have promulgated laws that seek to protect medical providers against legal consequences when using remote charts to prescribe pills to women who are in states where abortion is illegal.

Anna Rupani, executive director of Fund Texas Choice, said that the measure was aimed at threatening these suppliers and women out of the state in Texas.

“This is the scary effect,” she said. “This is another prohibition of abortion which allows the state to control the life of people’s health care and reproductive decisions.”

Earlier this year, a Texas judge ordered a New York doctor to pay more than $ 100,000 in penalties for providing abortion pills to a woman from the Dallas region.

The same supplier, Dr. Maggie Carpenter, faces criminal charges of a Louisiana prosecutor for similar allegations.

New York officials invoke the laws on the shield of their state to block Carpenter’s extradition and refuse to file the civil judgment.

If the upper courts are on the side of the officials of Louisiana or Texas, this could harm the laws on the shield.

Meanwhile, Texas and Florida general prosecutors seek to join Idaho, Kansas and Missouri in order to ensure that the courts are strengthening approvals from the United States Food and Drug Administration for Mifepristone, one of the drugs generally used in combination for drug abortions, supporting that there are security problems. They say he needs more strict controls because of these concerns.

If states succeed, it is possible that the drug is distributed only in a person and not by remote charts.

The main medical organizations, including the American College of Obstetricians and gynecologists, say that the drug is sure.