Texas has put itself in the spotlight recently for instituting a very controversial state law that in effect reversed the infamous court case Roe v. Wade. This has left many individuals, primarily people with uteruses, uncertain and terrified for what the future entails. The law itself, known as S.B. 8, states that it “bans abortions after about six weeks, once embryonic cardiac activity is detected, and does not make exceptions for incest or rape”, while also enabling private citizens to sue any abortion clinics or providers for an incentive. The impact of the law’s enactment was to create an “emboldening’ message… sent to other anti-choice governments and organisations, with the fact it had happened in the US giving it ‘a huge weight and legitimacy,’” according to The Guardian story “Texas anti-abortion law shows ‘terrifying’ fragility of women’s rights”. The design of this law and its supporters’ effort to go around judicial review has allowed the federal government to step in. However, according to a Texas attorney, the federal government has no grounds to sue the state for this new law because state officials aren’t responsible for the filings of private citizens.
Many have tried to block this ban by having citizens file suits against this new law but no significant progress has been made. One solution to possibly challenge the constitutionality of this law would be to wait until a doctor who refuses to perform the procedure is sued in state courts. However, hope remains very low that this law will be removed because even if it is blocked, there still remains an immense amount of uncertainty for abortion providers and for individuals who need to access these services.
The sudden emergence of this law isn’t actually so sudden, as this has been the agenda of many pro-life and conservative officials within the Texas government and in the Supreme Court for decades. As stated in “What The Texas Abortion Ban Does — And What It Means For Other States”, “What they want is for abortion to be completely inaccessible to pregnant people in the short term, but in the long term to have the providers so cowed by the uneven landscape and so afraid of litigation that they basically take the supplier out of this market entirely.” Even if the ban is somehow reversed or reduced, many providers and clinics may not even attempt to revert back to offering their services, which leaves thousands of women in the dark. How are women supposed to make these hard decisions, already feeling uncertain and overwhelmed to begin with, without the support of their own state to help them figure it out? How can society put this pressure on women to make a choice that shouldn’t have to make them feel evil or guilty, when in reality it’s about their survival?
Abortion clinics in surrounding states such as Kansas have seen a major influx of patients fleeing the Texas ban. While many argue that women can simply go to other places that offer abortions, this creates a gap between those who have the means to travel and those who don’t. The controversy stirred by this state law has been so large that it has reached a global audience shocked that a country that has always been a big influence for women’s rights and gender equality is now prohibiting women from a natural right. The United Nations in particular is alarmed by the US’s stance, and worries that the Texas law in combination with the Helms Amendment, which was developed during Roe v. Wade and blocks direct US funding for any abortion procedures gloablly, is hurting the US’s global influence. Now the biggest question on people’s mind is what are the next steps? Will the Texas law be successfully banned or revisited in court? Regardless of the status of this new law, the future of women’s rights and their access to abortion is in need of support by the public more than ever. Support can be shown through striving to get this law reversed by creating lots of retaliation and clear opposition, such as having more protests or disregarding the law in total to keep providing safe options for abortions. If people want to see change, a sense of community is key to generating the force of significant change and hopefully ending this nightmare.