Asa Daniels, senior staff writer
On Sept. 1, Texas’s Heartbeat Act went into effect. According to Chloe Jones of PBS NewsHour, the law bans all cases of abortion after six weeks, including rape and incest. Maggie Astor, of The New York Times, added that the only exception is made in cases of medical emergencies. ‘Medical emergencies’ is not defined in the law.
According to the act, while the woman receiving the abortion cannot be sued, anyone who helps the woman receive the abortion can be sued, at a minimum of $10,000. Helping can include giving a ride, providing money or providing counsel on having an abortion.
Citizens outside of Texas can be sued by this law, if they help a Texas woman get an abortion inside the state, Astor writes in her article.
The law does allow Texas women to receive an abortion out of state after six weeks, but Jones explains that this poses a number of challenges to accessibility, including money, time and ability to travel.
According to the law, the defendant, the citizen sued for assisting in an abortion, “has the burden of proving an affirmative defense, by a preponderance of the evidence.” Astor explains that this is a perplexing characteristic, as it is usually the plaintiff that must prove the law was broken.
In order to prevent people accused of rape from profiting off of a woman’s abortion, the law does not allow them to sue her. Additionally, government entities and their employees cannot sue, which Astor explains is to help protect the law from legal challenges.
The law is unique in that it is enforced by private citizens, rather than a government entity, according to Jones. This is why the law was not struck down as past laws have been, since it isn’t clear who to sue with regards to the implementation of the law. While local judges were sued, the Supreme Court did not hold the law up and voted 5 to 4 to take no action.
Private citizens do not need evidence that the suspected abortion happened after six weeks.
On Sept. 9, the Justice Department filed a suit against the state of Texas in the US District Court of Austin, Melissa Quinn wrote for CBS News. The Justice Department called the act “‘open defiance’ of the Constitution and said the goal of the measure was to ‘make it too risky for an abortion clinic to operate in the state, thereby preventing women throughout Texas from exercising their constitutional rights, while simultaneously thwarting judicial review,’” Quinn wrote.
Attorney General Merrick Garland added in a press release that if other states pass similar laws, the Justice Department will also file a suit against them.
Meanwhile, the Justice Department is going to be using the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, a federal law, to allow Texas women to continue to receive abortions by “[prohibiting] ‘the use or threat of force and physical obstruction that injures, intimidates, or interferes with a person seeking to obtain or provide reproductive health services,’” Quinn wrote.
From Jones’ article, Shyrissa Dobbins, a reproductive justice attorney and advocate, is concerned that the Texas healthcare system will not be able to handle the “influx, of emergency visits for people who are harming themselves or are harmed by these back-alley abortion providers,” due to the present COVID-19 pandemic.