As states have moved to outlaw abortion in the wake of the Supreme Court’s June 24 decision overturning Roe v. Wade, many have looked to Texas as a model.
The state implemented its ban on abortions after six weeks of pregnancy on Sept. 1, 2021 — one year ago today, and nine months before the court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision — and analysts are looking to the state to determine how such bans might play out in the roughly half of all states that have litigated or implemented pre-viability abortion bans since the court’s decision.
The six-week ban, known as SB 8, was one of a trifecta of provisions Texas lawmakers employed to limit abortion in the past year. On Aug. 25, the state implemented a 2021 trigger law banning all abortion. It has also reactivated a previously inactive 1925 law banning abortion. In effect, the state has multiple layers of protection to ward off legal challenges.
