Austin, Texas - Texas lawmakers have advanced a bill allowing people to sue those who mail abortion-inducing pills into the Republican-led state, with the measure expected to become law.
Abortion rights demonstrators march near the State Capitol in Austin, Texas. © SUZANNE CORDEIRO / AFP
The Texas House of Representatives easily passed House Bill 7 on Thursday, which expands the state's crackdown on abortion access to out-of-state providers.
The move is the latest by Texas to restrict abortion access since the US Supreme Courtoverturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling, which had established federal protections for abortion access.
The Texas bill is now expected to be approved by the state's Republican-majority Senate and Republican Governor Greg Abbott.
The measure prohibits the manufacture, distribution, and provision of abortion drugs within Texas and extends civil liability to out-of-state providers, manufacturers, and facilitators who mail, transport, prescribe, or provide them to Texans.
If enacted, the law would allow private individuals – including those unconnected to a case – to sue alleged violators for at least $100,000 in damages.
"This bill is about protecting the rights of fellow Texans and protecting their moms as well," Republican state Representative Jeff Leach, who co-authored the legislation, said on the House floor on Thursday.
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Demonstrators march for abortion rights outside of the Harris County Courthouse in Houston, Texas. © Mark Felix / AFP
Women who take abortion medication could not be held liable under the bill, nor could women who take abortion pills after miscarriages.
Opponents including reproductive rights groups condemned the bill as an overreach that would create a "bounty-hunting" culture and endanger women.
"H.B. 7 exports Texas' extreme abortion ban far beyond state borders," Blair Wallace, of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Texas, said in a statement.
"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."
Since the Supreme Court rescinded federal abortion rights in 2022, turning the issue over to the states, some have moved to restrict the procedure, including Texas where it is banned in almost all circumstances.
In February, a Texas court slapped a New York doctor with a $100,000 fine for remotely prescribing abortion pills to a patient in Texas.
A month prior, the same doctor wasindicted for "criminal abortion" by the state of Louisiana.
