The world you are envisioning is a good one. Unfortunately, not one that could ever exist here in Texas, and likely not elsewhere in the United States.
Regardless of whether or not one is pro choice or pro life, this is a very disconcerting part of the law: Rather than imposing a criminal or regulatory punishment for those who conduct abortions after the point in the pregnancy, the state law created a so-called "private right of action" to enforce the restriction. Essentially, the legislature deputized private citizens to bring civil litigation -- with the threat of $10,000 or more in damages -- against providers or even anyone who helped a woman access an abortion after six weeks. The citizens do not have to have any connection to any involved party.
Bad news for women who are having a constitutional right infringed upon by an activist court ignoring precedence...
Wonder if that means you could accuse the many politicians in the state of Texas of abortion. I mean Paxton has a mistress he helped get a job. Probably an easy lawsuit to toss there. All these politicians are unfaithful. Wouldn't be hard for an investigative journalist to see all the extra-marital affairs these politicians are having and then violate their HIPPA rights based on presumption they'd then have to prove their own innocence of. Use their own law against them is all I'm trying to say. See how quickly they change their tune. Or at least point out the hypocrisy of it all.
killing the unborn is not a right enshrined in the constitution, despite what some judges might think
Yup and the reality is that the rich (including Republicans) will be able to afford to go to another state or even another country to get a safe abortion while the poor will be stuck with the choice of either carrying out a risky non-medical abortion or simply being forced to term. All this ruling does is hurt the poor. The rich will continue to have easy access to abortion. But then again, that's how American health care as a whole works so this shouldn't be surprising.
Facts may be challenging for you, but since 1973, yes, it is an constitutional right. Perhaps your law classes ignored the Court's ruling. The Supreme Court also ruled that during a pregnant woman's first trimester, a state cannot regulate abortion beyond requiring that the procedure be performed by a licensed doctor in medically safe conditions. This Texas law clearly violates that, so this activist court is ignoring precedence.
I think it's a bad precedent to set. If it works, you could use the same model to infringe on people's rights in other ways. Give anyone standing to sue over gun ownership. I'd love to get rid of guns, but not that way. I don't think this is a road we should be going down. They'd just go to another state to get their abortions. I'm sure politicians' mistresses have more mobility and financial wherewithal than the average woman. Though-- if a politician (or anyone) buys a plane ticket for a woman to go get an abortion in another state, are they still vulnerable to this law for helping them leave the state?
Call me cold hearted. But I don’t care why a woman gets an abortion before 24 weeks. Even 24-30 is a gray zine for me. 30+ Should be rare.
An editorial about the snitch provision of the Texas abortion law: https://www.usatoday.com/story/opin...bortion-law-violates-women-rights/5667045001/
It's enlightening to see how many of our compatriots would've gleefully joined the Stasi if given the opportunity.
I mean how do you usually tell if someone you know is pregnant six weeks in? If a mistress has a certain glow about her skin that wasn't otherwise present before, a person could assume the possibility of pregnancy. And if that glow is gone and they had to take a week off vacation to go to another state unexpectedly after an abrupt doctor visit? A "good faith" whistleblower could do their due diligence and sound the alarms for investigation. They've opened the door for this type of invasion of privacy for all citizens in the state of Texas. The people I really feel for are the ones who truly want to have children but have high rates of miscarriage early on. Those people will face false accusations aplenty when already dealing with the grief of a hopeful successful pregnancy that goes to full term but doesn't.
It's absolutely insane that individual citizens have been given this power. The law allows for accusers/plaintiffs to recoup all court costs and fees if their suit is successful, but provides no recourse for women who have been sued and have to pay up to defend themselves. We're a state full of people who start physical fights over masks and you don't think that some among us are petty enough to abuse this system against people they don't like?
The cowards in Texas legislature that wrote this bill purposely wrote it to have the public (instead of the state) do the dirty work to sidestep the constitutional aspects and to avoid liability for anything their new law results in.
