Texas' Draconian New Abortion Law

Protesters hold up signs and cheer at a protest outside the Texas state capitol on May 29, 2021 in Austin, Texas. [Sergio Flores / Getty Images via AFP] — Protesters hold up signs and cheer at a protest outside the Texas state capitol on May 29, 2021 in Austin, Texas. [Sergio Flores / Getty Images via AFP]

Everything is bigger in Texas, including its abortion bans.

This year, state governments across the U.S. introduced 71 pieces of legislation restricting abortion access, part of the greater Republican strategy to get Roe v. Wade overturned. Several states have gotten close to instituting six-week abortion bans, but Texas is taking it to a whole new level.

In May, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law Senate Bill 8, which bans abortions two weeks after a missed menstrual cycle. But it also allows and even encourages private citizens to sue abortion providers and other entities that facilitate abortion after six weeks of pregnancy.

Bizarrely, these private citizens don’t need to have a connection to the abortion provider or the pregnancy, or even be a Texas resident. The provision is intended to make the bill harder to block in courts – with private citizens taking on the role of enforcement, it no longer falls to state officials.

“If this is not blocked, if this is successful, it would set a truly dangerous precedent,” Marc Hearron, a lead attorney on the suit, told the Texas Tribune last month.

The law is set to take effect on Sept. 1, and at least 20 abortion providers have filed suit against several state officials in the past month. One of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit is the Texas Equal Access Fund, a North Texas nonprofit that helps people who can’t afford an abortion and hosts a support group for people who’ve had abortions.

Kamyon Conner, the group’s executive director, told me over email how the law could stifle operations and hurt Texans in turn. (This interview has been edited for length and clarity.)

How does your group help people in Texas who are trying to get an abortion?

The Texas Equal Access (TEA) Fund is an abortion fund in Texas that serves 110 counties. We provide funding to help people pay for their abortions and offer emotional support for them before, during and after their procedures with our Virtual Clinic Companion.

The average amount we offer per client is $331, which goes towards the cost of their procedure. Our social worker follows up with all of our clients to check in on them, offer them one-on-one support and connect them to our support networks.

We believe that there is no choice if there is no access. We believe that abortion is a fundamental part of general health care, and that it is the responsibility of government to cover abortion as part of social safety net programs. However, in the absence of government funding, we believe it is our duty to act now to support those who want abortions and cannot afford them.

When people come to the TEA Fund for help, how do you explain this looming ban?

Senate Bill 8 is a piece of legislation that, if allowed to go into effect, would ban abortions when cardiac activity is detected in the pregnancy – as early as six weeks. It also allows anyone – even anti-abortion protesters – to sue someone who may have helped someone get an abortion in Texas that was performed outside of the legal limit. Anyone who helped someone get an abortion such as abortion providers, abortion funds, friends, family etc. is vulnerable to being sued.

Given this huge shift, how could this new law impact your work?

This legislation is different than other abortion bans because Texas politicians are embracing a particularly grim tactic with this bill: Instead of enforcing the law themselves, they created what is called a “private right of action.”

This has the potential to open the floodgates to frivolous lawsuits that abuse the legal system to exhaust the time and resources of clinics and abortion funds, and force them to [defend themselves — which would take away from our ability to help as many people as possible — and] shut down.

It will also intimidate people out of helping anyone access abortion, because they could be sued and fined $10,000.

This law would also mean that almost all our callers would have to travel out of state to get care. Abortion is already extremely difficult to access in Texas, where restrictions have forced clinics to close, and patients face countless hurdles, including a forced 24-hour waiting period after state-mandated biased counseling, bans on both public and private insurance coverage for abortion procedures, child care costs and expenses [and more] … Our intake director and social worker on the front lines have spoken to callers who think that abortion is not legal in Texas, or that they are doing something illegal while accessing abortion care.

We don’t know for sure how it's going to impact potential fund donors. We’re a plaintiff in the lawsuit against this law, and we’re just waiting to see what happens.

How are you preparing for this law to go into effect?

We already went through an abortion ban last year, when Gov. Abbott used the COVID-19 pandemic to ban all abortions in the state. We had to help folks navigate new barriers and help them go out of state. … We’re now relying on our expertise and resilience to help us get through this ban.

We’re also doing a lot of fundraising, because if most of our callers have to travel out of state, they will need more support, so we want to get ready to provide more help. And we’re also recruiting more volunteers to help add coverage to our help and text lines and are especially building up our Spanish-speaking volunteer base to help us cater to folks who only speak Spanish.