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Texas has tightened its restrictions on abortion with the signing into law of a measure that bans the manufacture, distribution, and mailing of abortion drugs in the state.
Governor Greg Abbott signed House Bill 7 on 17 September. The 20-page statute makes it illegal for anyone to manufacture or distribute abortion-inducing drugs in Texas, or to mail, transport, deliver, prescribe, or provide them to or from any location in the state. The law applies to the two medications most commonly used to end pregnancies—mifepristone and misoprostol.
The legislation includes some exceptions, such as use of the drugs by a pregnant woman herself in an attempt to induce an abortion, and in cases of miscarriage or ectopic pregnancy. However, it introduces new legal risks for anyone found sending the pills into Texas—a state which already bans almost all abortions following the 2022 overturning of Roe v. Wade by the U.S. Supreme Court.
The law is enforceable through private lawsuits. Any individual may bring an action against a person or company alleged to have violated the ban. The Act assigns to the plaintiff the state’s claim for relief, enabling private enforcement in the name of Texas. It specifies that the transfer of the state’s claim is “absolute,” with the state retaining no interest in the matter.
Successful plaintiffs are entitled to substantial damages. The statute sets a minimum of $100,000 per violation. If the plaintiff is the pregnant woman herself or a relative of the unborn child, she keeps the entire award. If the action is brought by another individual, that plaintiff receives $10,000, and the remainder is placed in trust for a charitable organisation of their choosing.
The law also stipulates that pharmaceutical manufacturers, distributors, or delivery companies cannot be sued unless it is shown that they failed to adopt and implement compliance policies. This means major carriers such as Amazon, FedEx, and UPS would not face liability if they can demonstrate that preventative measures are in place.
Abortion rights groups have condemned the law as an attempt to deputise ordinary citizens to enforce abortion restrictions. Supporters argue it is intended to close a loophole through which thousands of pill orders were being mailed annually into Texas from other states and abroad.
The mechanism mirrors a similar provision in a 2021 Texas law that banned abortions once fetal cardiac activity could be detected, often around six weeks of pregnancy. That earlier law also relied on citizen enforcement rather than criminal prosecution.
Drug-induced abortions now account for 63 per cent of all terminations in the United States, according to the Guttmacher Institute. Since many abortion clinics in Texas closed after Roe v. Wade was overturned in June 2022, women have increasingly sought telehealth consultations and mail-order delivery of the drugs to induce abortions at home.
The new Texas law is due to take effect in about three months. Its passage has revived debate over whether the state can extend its restrictions beyond its own borders by targeting drugs shipped from states where abortion remains legal.
Shield laws passed in Democrat-led states aim to protect providers from out-of-state prosecutions and lawsuits, but how these will interact with the new Texas statute remains uncertain.
Texas is among 14 states that imposed near-total bans on abortion after the U.S. Supreme Court reversed Roe.
(Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
