Texan women who wish to have an abortion after six weeks will need to travel across state lines, or – as estimated by the pro-choice Guttmacher Institute – an average of 248 miles (399km)
A law banning abortion six weeks into pregnancy that has come into effect in the US state of Texas, bans abortions after the detection of what anti-abortion campaigners call a foetal heartbeat.
Any individual will have the right to sue doctors who perform an abortion past the six-week point. Supreme Court did not respond to an emergency appeal by abortion providers, hence this outcome. This is something medical authorities say is misleading.
Doctors and women’s rights groups have heavily criticised the law.
The “Heartbeat Act” was signed into law by Texas Governor Greg Abbott in May, but rights groups, including Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), then requested that the Supreme Court block the legislation. The group described the development as “blatantly unconstitutional”.
The US women’s health group Planned Parenthood also condemned the ban, tweeting: “No matter what, we aren’t backing down, and we are still fighting. Everyone deserves access to abortion.”
Three others – Idaho, Oklahoma and South Carolina – have passed six-week ban bills this year, all of which have been stalled by legal challenges and are yet to go into effect
Texan women who wish to have an abortion after six weeks will need to travel across state lines, or – as estimated by the pro-choice Guttmacher Institute – an average of 248 miles (399km).
The legislation makes an exception in the case of medical emergency, which requires written proof from a doctor, but not for pregnancies resulting from rape or incest.
Most abortion restrictions that have been proposed before have relied on criminal penalties or some form of regulatory punishment.
The Texas law instead authorises “a private civil right of action”, which allows people to sue to enforce the law even if they themselves have not been harmed.
The ACLU and other critics have suggested the Texas law will champion “a bounty hunting scheme” of costly “vigilante lawsuits” designed to harass women seeking an abortion.
In conservative Texas, an April poll found nearly half of the state’s voters support a six-week ban on abortions.
Three others – Idaho, Oklahoma and South Carolina – have passed six-week ban bills this year, all of which have been stalled by legal challenges and are yet to go into effect.
Some Democrat-led states, like New York, have enacted measures to safeguard abortion access in the event of this scenario.
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