If the legislation works as hoped, abortion opponents say, the availability of medication abortion could become more limited, even in states where abortion remains legal, because manufacturers and delivery companies could be expected to limit distribution in Texas to avoid legal liability. Supporters hope and opponents fear the legislation, nearing final passage in Texas, will serve as a model for other states to limit medication abortion by promoting a rash of lawsuits against medical providers, pharmaceutical companies, and companies such as FedEx or UPS that may ship the drugs. HOUSTON — Lawmakers in Texas moved decisively Thursday to curtail the distribution of mail-order abortion medications from states like New York and California, allowing nearly anyone to sue doctors, distributors, and manufacturers anywhere in the country and collect cash awards. “This is the strongest and the most legally dynamic attempt that our movement has made yet,” said John Seago, the president of Texas Right to Life. While the legislation is focused on Texas, he added, “Hopefully this will lead to a wider protection.” Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Texas’s effort is part of a broader strategy by abortion foes to target the rising popularity of medication abortion and to expand limits on the procedure into states that ostensibly protect abortion rights. President Donald Trump’s budget and policy law, passed by Congress this summer, imposed a one-year ban on state Medicaid payments to any health care nonprofit that offers abortions and received more than $800,000 in federal funding in 2023. Advertisement A federal judge in Maine declined to block the government from stripping Medicaid funding from one of Maine’s largest abortion providers on Monday, finding that to do so would override “the will of the people as expressed by Congress.” Advertisement Proponents of the Texas legislation also hoped it would undermine “shield laws” in Democrat-led states that protect abortion providers from liability. The conflict between different states’ handling of abortion-related lawsuits could ultimately lead to the Supreme Court. “Texas is sort of the tip of the spear,” said Marc Hearron, the associate director of litigation at the Center for Reproductive Rights, which provides legal support to abortion providers. “It’s setting up a clash.” Anti-abortion activists and many conservatives have been upset that the number of abortions nationwide has not declined since the Supreme Court overturned Roe V. Wade in 2022 and a raft of conservative states banned the procedure. Studies have found that a rise in abortions using prescription pills, mifepristone and misoprostol, often prescribed and mailed from states where abortion is legal to those where it is not, is a key reason. “We are responding to a new trend that has popped up on the other side,” Seago said. “My hope is that the penalty is so high and that the standing is so wide — anybody can bring these lawsuits — that it will deter doctors in California and in New York from doing business in Texas.” Other Republican-led states have looked for ways to curb the interstate mailing of abortion medication. In Louisiana, lawmakers approved a measure last month allowing for suits against out-of-state doctors who provide abortion medications. The Tennessee Legislature considered a similar bill this year, but it failed to pass. The Texas measure is the Legislature’s second attempt to try to curb mail-order abortion pills, after failing to pass similar legislation during its regular session in the spring. Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican and an abortion opponent, then called for the Legislature to try again during a pair of special sessions this summer in which most of the attention focused on a Republican push for redistricting. Advertisement It was already illegal to provide abortion medication in Texas under the state’s near-total ban, which provides for serious criminal and civil penalties. The new Texas legislation, which was approved 82-48, goes further. It allows ordinary people unconnected to a pregnant woman to sue manufacturers, and people who provide or send medications that induce abortions to Texans, or intend to do so, and to collect a minimum of $100,000 in damages. Women who take such medications to end their pregnancies cannot be sued under the legislation. A suit can be brought even if no abortion has taken place. “An abortion does not have to occur for there to potentially be enforcement?” state Representative Erin Zwiener, D-San Marcos, asked during debate Thursday. “Correct,” said state Representative Jeff Leach, a Dallas-area Republican who sponsored the bill. Zwiener presented a hypothetical situation in which the parent of a pregnant daughter called a clinic outside Texas and inquired about mail-order abortion pills. “That person could potentially be liable under this type of lawsuit?” she asked. “Correct,” Leach said. Similar legislation has already passed the state Senate. With passage in the House, it now needs to be passed by the Senate again before heading to Abbott’s desk for his expected signature. This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

Source: The Boston Globe