Suit Filed Against Latest Abortion Ban

A Planned Parenthood demonstration at the Capitol in 2015 (Photo by John Anderson)

While the Texas Legislature continues to chip away at reproductive rights this special session, abortion providers have made good on their promise to fight a dangerous provision in Senate Bill 8, an anti-choice law passed in the regular session. On July 20, Planned Parenthood, two Austin attorneys, and the Center for Reproductive Rights – the legal team that won Texas women a major victory at the U.S. Supreme Court last summer – filed suit against the state to challenge an especially egregious part of the omnibus bill.

Abortion providers, including Whole Wom­an's Health, are looking to strike down a rule – tacked on to SB 8 in 11th-hour debate on the House floor – that bans dilation and evacuation (D&E), effectively outlawing the safest and most common method of second-trimester abortion. The suit argues that the D&E ban, which carves out no exceptions for rape or incest, "imposes an undue burden on women" and violates patients' right to "bodily integrity" because it would require them to accept "unnecessary, invasive, and potentially painful medical procedures" in order to access their constitutional right to abortion.

The law also criminalizes physicians for following their standard of care, slapping any doctor found in violation with a state jail felony – up to two years in jail, and a fine of $10,000. Due to the criminal penalties, district attorneys in major metros, including Travis County D.A. Margaret Moore, are named as defendants in the suit. The full law, which also includes a measure forcing women to cremate or bury fetal tissue after an abortion, is slated to take effect Sept. 1.

"Doctors and major medical groups ... all oppose this ban; and of course they do, it is a law that makes it illegal for doctors to use their expertise to do what is right for the women they serve," said WWH president Amy Hagstrom Miller during a press call last week. "This threatens the safety of women, and punishes doctors for using their best medical judgment."

The latest Texas reproductive rights suit comes just over a year after CRR and WWH successfully defeated two major parts of last session's HB 2, a law meant to shut down abortion clinics. The SCOTUS ruled that states must show actual evidence of a public health benefit when passing abortion restrictions. Judging by the bills passed and proposed this session, Texas politicians will have a difficult time scrambling to find a shred of that evidence.