Abortion in Texas
Abortion in Texas is illegal in most cases. There are nominally exceptions to save the mother's life, or prevent "substantial impairment of major bodily function", but the law on abortion in Texas is written in such an ambiguous way that life-threatening or harmful pregnancies do not explicitly constitute an exception. Attempts to clarify and codify these exceptions into law have been rejected by Republican lawmakers in Texas.
This has resulted in some expectant mothers with health problems being forced to carry until birth, jeopardizing their health, even resulting in deaths. Some pregnant women leave the state to seek an abortion elsewhere, with an estimated 35,000 women crossing Texas state lines for legal abortions in 2023. Anyone who aids or abets an illegal abortion in Texas can be sued for wrongful death. In March 2023, a Galveston man sued three friends of his ex-wife for wrongful death after they helped her obtain illegal abortion pills that were used to terminate her pregnancy. The lawsuit was dropped on October 10, 2024 as part of a confidential settlement with the defendants.
The legal status of abortion in Texas is due to a trigger law passed in July 2021 that came in effect on August 25, 2022, as a consequence of the U.S. Supreme Court's 2022 decision Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization overturning Roe v. Wade. The law makes no exception for pregnancies resulting from rape or incest. In May 2021, the Republican-controlled Texas legislature passed the Texas Heartbeat Act that banned abortion after the detection of embryonic or fetal cardiac activity. This stage of development normally occurs after about six weeks of pregnancy, earlier than when most women know that they are pregnant. This act relied solely on enforcement by private individuals through civil lawsuits, thus evading pre-enforcement challenges based on Roe v. Wade. Before the enactment of this law, elective abortions had been allowed up to 20 weeks post-fertilization.
In August 2023, Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed HB 3058 into law, allowing doctors to provide abortions in the case of an ectopic pregnancy or if a pregnant patient's water breaks too early, rendering the fetus unviable. In December 2023, the Texas Supreme Court ruled that a pregnant woman whose fetus was diagnosed with a fatal condition and whose pregnancy posed a threat to her health could not be permitted to receive an abortion. In June 2024, the Texas Supreme Court further upheld the state's criminalization of abortion. The cities of Austin, Dallas, Denton, El Paso, and Houston have enacted resolutions instructing city officials to deprioritize enforcement of the state's abortion laws, but anyone violating the state's abortion laws in those cities remains subject to criminal prosecution by the district attorney and civil penalties imposed by the state attorney general.
The stringent restrictions on abortion have had negative spillover effects on OB-GYN and neonatal care in the state, as OB-GYN providers have increasingly left the state, and as infant and neonatal deaths have increased. According to a ProPublica analysis, sepsis rates related to second-trimester pregnancies have substantially increased since the abortion ban was implemented.
Terminology
Reflecting its nature and legislative intent, the Texas Heartbeat Act uses the term "unborn child" for the fetus or embryo irrespective of the gestational phase in the definition section: "'Unborn child' means a human fetus or embryo in any stage of gestation from fertilization until birth." Texas Health and Safety Code Sec. 171.201.The use of ‘heartbeat’ in the Act is considered misleading by some medical and reproductive health experts. They assert that referring to a ‘heartbeat’ is medically inaccurate. The embryo does not have a developed heart at 6 weeks' gestation.
History
Political support
One of the largest groups of women strongly tending to oppose legal abortion in the United States is southern white evangelical Christians. Outside of this one group, there are no large demographic groups who oppose legal abortion. All other major religious groups, including both Protestant and Catholic Christians, have a pro-choice majority, albeit a slight one. The push by lawmakers to penalize women accessing abortion with jail time are men, including five Texan legislators who authored a bill to punish women who have received abortions with the death penalty.Historically, polls have shown that a slight plurality of Texans identify as pro-life.
Legislative history
By the end of the 1800s, every state in the Union except Louisiana had therapeutic exceptions in their legislative bans on abortions. In the 19th century, bans on abortion by state legislatures were concerned with protecting the life of the mother, given the number of deaths caused by abortions. State governments saw themselves as looking out for the lives of their citizens. In 1854, Texas passed an abortion law that made performing an abortion, except in the case of preserving the life of the mother, a criminal offense punishable by two to five years in prison. The law, found in Articles 4512.1 to 4512.4, had a provision stipulating that anyone who provided medication or other means to assist in performing an abortion was an accomplice who could also be charged.1990s
Following the US Supreme Court ruling in Roe v. Wade in 1973, the State of Texas decided not to repeal abortion laws on the books that had become unconstitutional and unenforceable. A law passed in 1992 said that only Texas-licensed physicians could perform an abortion in the state. A law passed in 1997 gave physicians, nurses, health care provider employees and hospital employees who objected to abortions the ability to refuse to participate directly or indirectly in the procedure. Private hospitals were allowed to refuse the use of their facilities to provide abortion services unless a physician determined that the pregnant woman's life was in immediate danger.Twenty-one abortion-related bills were introduced in the Texas legislature in 1997. Five were eventually enacted: TX SB 407, TX SB 1534, TX HB 1, YX HB 39, and TX HB 2856. TX SB 407 allowed for the Texas Department of Health to suspend the license of an abortion facility if the health and safety of people using the facility were threatened. This bill was introduced by Senator Chris Harris on February 5, 1997, and passed on February 18, 1997, by a voice vote. It then continued to the House, where it passed by a voice vote on April 18, 1997, before being signed into law by Governor George W. Bush on May 1, 1997. TX SB 1534 dealt with funding, stating that no state funding could be used to support, either directly or indirectly, abortion or abortion-related issues. Introduced by Democratic Senator Gonzalo Barrientos on March 20, 1997, the wording about abortion was only added to the legislation during negotiations between the House and the Senate, with the amended version passing both houses in mid-May 1997. TX HB1 said that funds allocated for the Department of Health for family planning services could not be used by the Department of Health or any organizations it provides money to in support of abortion services, either directly or indirectly. This included a proviso that said this was organization-wide, not just as it relates to specific facilities. Representatives Republican McCall, Democrat Leticia Van de Putte, Democrat Gray, Democrat Greenberg and Republican Solomons introduced TX HB39 on January 28, 1997. Originally only about genetic testing with no mention of abortion, the legislation was amended by the Senate, stating that genetic testing of a fetus could not be done on the fetus without the consent of the mother and that the results of any subsequent genetic testing could not be used to compel or coerce a woman into getting an abortion, including having an insurance company threaten the eligibility of health care coverage. These changes were then passed by the House and the bill was signed into law by Governor Bush on June 20, 1997.
put in new requirements for abortion clinics, inspection procedures of clinics and a clinic's ability to advertise. It said the Texas Department of Health had to assign each licensed abortion clinic a unique number, clinics needed to have this number in any advertising materials and created a toll-free number people could call to check the status of a clinic's license. Information on the toll-free number had to be provided to women seeking abortion services by the facility offering them at the time of appointment. This law underwent some changes before being passed by voice vote in the House on May 13, 1997, and by a vote of 31 - 0 in the Senate on May 26, 1997. It was signed into law by Governor Bush on June 19, 1997. TX SB 96 reached a floor vote but was eventually removed from consideration following a point of order on May 27, 1997. It would have required minors seeking abortions without parental consent to have the procedure first approved by a physician not located at an abortion clinic certifying the need for the abortion because of physical, sexual or emotional harm caused by continuing the pregnancy. It would have also required minors to wait 48 hours before being able to have an abortion after their physician contacts their parents to notify the parents of approval for the procedure.
2000s
Texas passed a statute requiring parental notification in the early 2000s. This law resulted in a 21% increase in 17-year-old girls seeking abortions in the second trimester. In 2003, the legislature passed a law that required all abortions after 16 weeks take place in an outpatient surgery center and required a 24-hour waiting period before women could get an abortion. Clinics were also required to give women a "Woman's Right to Know" pamphlet which included factually incorrect medical information. In 2005, the 79th Legislature enacted several laws related to abortion. One was a parental consent law. They also passed a "late-term" abortion ban. Other laws dealt with the funding aspects of abortion and family planning, trying to prevent funds for women's reproductive health from going to organizations that provided information about abortions or provided abortion services.Texas was one of 23 states in 2007 to have detailed abortion-specific informed consent requirements. Statute-required informed consent materials given to women in Texas used graphic and inflammatory language. The law also required the woman to be told how far advanced her pregnancy was. Texas was among states to have passed laws requiring abortion providers to warn patients of a link between abortion and breast cancer and to issue other scientifically unsupported warnings. Informed consent materials given to women seeking abortions in Texas include counseling materials claiming women who have abortions may have suicidal thoughts or experience "post-abortion traumatic stress syndrome." The latter syndrome is not recognized by American Psychological Association or the American Psychiatric Association. Informed consent materials about fetal pain in Texas say the ability of the fetus to feel pain does not exist until 20 weeks, before concluding that it is unknown if a fetus can feel pain at 12 weeks. The legislature tried to pass a "mandatory ultrasound" bill but it failed to pass in 2007.