When Texas abortion ban Senate Bill 8 took effect on September 1, phones at the four Whole Woman’s Health abortion clinics in the state wouldn’t stop ringing. Clinic staff in Austin, McAllen, Ft. Worth, and McKinney were inundated with calls from confused and scared patients seeking abortions hoping they could still access care in their communities.
Passed by the Republican-dominated Texas Legislature this Spring and signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott in May, SB 8 forbids abortion care once embryonic cardiac activity is detected, which is typically around six weeks, and offers no exception for rape or incest. Since the overwhelming majority of pregnant people don’t realize they are pregnant this early or seek care before six weeks’ gestation, the law has amounted to a near-total ban on abortion in the second largest state in the country. The law also allows any private citizen to sue an abortion provider or someone who “aids or abets” the procedure and awards them a $10,000 bounty if they prevail in court. SB 8 is considered the most restrictive abortion law since before Roe v Wade, which has protected the right to abortion care since 1973.
In effect for more than two months thanks to the inaction of the Supreme Court, SB 8 has had devastating effects on women seeking reproductive health care in Texas—a state in which abortion care was already difficult to access due to a maze of state-imposed barriers.
