A new bill in Texas is designed to pit family members against each other at a time when they need one another most.
Texas Republicans recently passed another law to prevent abortions—one that rewards family members with at least $100,000 for snitching.
House Bill 7 passed the Texas Legislature, and Gov. Greg Abbott is expected to sign it by Sept. 24, which is the deadline for him to take action on it.
It would allow private citizens to file lawsuits against any person intending to help obtain abortion pills in the state, anyone distributing abortion pills, or any company shipping abortion pills into Texas. If the lawsuit is successful, they’d receive at least $100,000 for their efforts.
There’s a caveat: If the private citizen is not related to a pregnant woman seeking abortion pills, they would only receive $10,000, with $90,000 going to the charity of their choice, if they win their lawsuit. If the private citizen is related to a pregnant woman seeking abortion pills, however, they’d get to keep the full $100,000.
These private citizens, also called “bounty hunters” for their interest in making money off of people or information, do not need to prove that pills were shipped or distributed. Instead, they only need to demonstrate an intent to provide pills—for example, a mother researching abortion pills for her pregnant daughter could be sued by a disapproving family member, even if no pills were ever obtained, said state Sen. Carol Alvarado (D-Houston) during legislative debate on the bill.
The person or company sued—in other words, the defendant—would be responsible for paying the $100,000, plaintiff’s attorney fees and court costs, and any other fees associated with the lawsuit.
These could be out-of-state doctors or even a pregnant woman’s best friend who steered her to an abortion care website.
The bill is designed to cut pregnant Texas women off from being able to order FDA-approved pills that safely end early pregnancies, prescribed through telemedicine appointments with physicians in states where abortion is legal.
Democrats vehemently opposed the bill.
Texas already has multiple abortion ban bills, including Senate Bill 8, passed in 2021, which offers bounty hunters $10,000 if they successfully sue a medical provider who performs an illegal abortion in the state.
However, despite laws which ban abortion from conception in Texas, women have been able to access highly effective abortion pills through the mail.
As of 2023, 8,000 pregnant women a month in abortion ban states have self-managed their abortions in the privacy of their homes, receiving a two-pill regimen of mifepristone and misoprostol by mail.
With HB 7, that’s what Texas Republicans aim to stop. And since husbands, parents, and siblings of a pregnant woman are most likely to know that she has been able to quietly use abortion pills, they’ll be encouraged by their state government to tell on her and sue for at least $100,000.
Plus, in a dangerous twist for medical providers across the country, a woman who was pregnant and used abortion medications to end her pregnancy can actually turn around and sue her own provider in an attempt to get $100,000.
“The point of this bill is to create enough fear of these lawsuits to stop physicians in states where abortion is legal from providing care to Texas women,” said Blake Rocap, legislative counsel for Avow, an abortion advocacy group in Texas.
But by dangling the opportunity to win at least $100,000 to close family members who sell out a pregnant wife or daughter who used or was curious about abortion pills, this bill is “trying to destroy families,” contends Nimra Chowdhry, senior state legislative counsel with the Center for Reproductive Rights.
“It will create a culture of surveillance among community members and families. It will sow fear and confusion and create an even more hostile environment for all pregnant people in Texas,” she said.
“We will see more horror stories about pregnant women in Texas suffering and dying,” she warned. If more pregnant people in the state, some of whom have serious health issues, are forced to carry pregnancies and give birth, there will be tragedies.
Three young healthy women have already been documented to have died in Texas, when they miscarried and were turned away by hospitals, or hospitals delayed necessary treatment for fear of being prosecuted for terminating their pregnancies.
Two developed sepsis infections and a third, a mother of two boys, bled to death.
In the year following Senate Bill 8’s passage, maternal mortality in Texas skyrocketed 56%, compared to 11% nationally. Pregnant women in Texas now have a 155% higher chance of maternal death versus women in California, where abortion is legal.
Despite the facts demonstrating that abortion bans have been dangerous for pregnant Texans, Republicans in the legislature named their abortion pill ban (House Bill 7) the “Woman and Child Protection Act.”
Sen. Bryan Hughes, the Mineola Republican who sponsored the new bill and also authored Senate Bill 8, claimed that Republicans “care about that mom” who he calls a victim of “Big Pharma” supplying “poisonous pills.”
In fact, mifepristone—one of the abortion pills getting Hughes’ ire—has been shown to be safer than penicillin and Viagra and has been used by millions of people. The other pill used in the abortion regimen, misoprostol, has also been demonstrated to be highly effective and safe by the National Institutes of Health.
“Texas Republicans are upset that people are still getting safe legal abortion care, despite the lack of availability in Texas, by accessing telehealth and also traveling to other states,” said Rocap.
Chowdhry called the bill a “temper tantrum” by Texas Republicans who have not been able to stop every abortion in the state.
Mini Timmaraju, president of Reproductive Freedom for All and a native Texan, said she hopes activist groups who have been helping Texas women get the care they need will not be scared off because of this latest abortion law.
“Even though the restrictions are incredibly egregious, there’s been a tremendous network of activists and providers who’ve been determined to provide these patients with care,” she added.
“Because abortion funds and provider networks have been so successful in taking care of these patients, that’s why the (Texas Legislature) is going after medication abortion,” Timmaraju pointed out.
“The activists and the folks behind these organizations are some of the bravest people I know, and they are not intimidated.”
Nevertheless, the new law will isolate countless pregnant Texas women who may not know who they can trust, confide in, or get help or support from.
The law is “going after people’s thoughts” even if an abortion never happens,” said Chowdhry. “Individuals will be scared to even search for abortion information on the internet.”
The new anti abortion pill law has put “a target on everyone’s back involved in any way in medication abortion. Republican legislators are gunning to harm pregnant Texans. It’s their attempt to stop pregnant Texas women from getting necessary health care,” Chowdhry charged.
Rocap said bounty hunters will “take a swing” at the websites for women’s abortion clinics and organizations that provide funds to help Texas women pay for abortion pills.
He explained that if the abortion pill ban were structured like a typical law, and Texas prosecutors had to criminally charge out-of-state doctors and other abortion care organizations, it would be far more difficult to prevail in court.
“Texas is trying to enforce its state laws outside of its borders and get other states to enforce their ban,” added Chowdhry. “It will pit states against each other.”
How House Bill 7 will impact miscarriage care
One of the drugs used in the abortion pill regimen, misoprostol, is also frequently used to treat miscarriages. When a pregnant woman is miscarrying, doctors may prescribe misoprostol to help complete the process, as an incomplete miscarriage is a dangerous medical situation. Misoprostol mimics natural hormones to soften the cervix and make the uterus contract, which together help pass the tissue of the non-viable pregnancy from the uterus.
Already many pharmacies in Texas refuse to carry misoprostol for fear of being charged with enabling an abortion. This new law will deter even more from stocking the medication and providing it to patients who have a prescription.
Between 10% and 20% of all pregnancies end in natural miscarriages. In Texas, there are 6.4 million women of reproductive age.
That’s a lot of potential miscarriages.
Austin mom Kaitlyn Kash told the Austin American-Statesman that she was turned away from two pharmacies while bleeding heavily from a devastating miscarriage.
Despite having a prescription from her OB-GYN for misoprostol, both pharmacists refused to fill it. They demanded to know if the fetus that her uterus was trying to expel still had a heartbeat.
While actively miscarrying, Kash finally obtained the medication from an online pharmacy. She reported that while she waited for it to be delivered, she laid in bed and cried.
