Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has declared June 24 — the day the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade — an annual agency holiday to be known as Sanctity of Life Day.
Texas is one of 13 states that has imposed a so-called trigger law that automatically bans abortion in the state 30 days after the judgment for Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization is filed. Friday’s 66-page opinion will eventually be followed by a formal judgment, or mandate.
“Roe v. Wade and its successor case Planned Parenthood v. Casey have absolutely no basis in the U.S. Constitution,” Paxton said in a statement after the opinion. “Nevertheless, for half a century, Americans have had to live under these illegitimate, illegal and unconstitutional dictates of a partisan, willful Supreme Court.”
No more, Paxton said. The question of abortion has been returned to the states, and, in Texas, the question already has been answered: Abortion is illegal.
Attorney Susan Hays, who has served on the Texas Supreme Court Advisory Committee to draft rules around abortion-related bills, said Friday’s decision would not end abortion.
“Abortions will not end, because women have to have them to survive,” Hays said. “We also have locally elected attorneys who are not going to enforce prosecutions.”
The U.S. Supreme Court took a pass on ruling on Texas’ so-called heartbeat bill, which outlawed abortion after about six weeks of gestation. That’s because the law was crafted in such a way that the state did not have standing to be sued. Instead, the law allows individuals to pursue citizen arrests of those who provide an assist a woman getting an abortion.
Five district attorneys in Texas — in Travis, Bexar, Nueces, Dallas and Fort Bend counties — have indicated they refused to criminalize or punish women for their health care decisions.
“In Travis County, we know our community is safer when women and families can make personal health care and reproductive decisions without interference from the state,” Travis County District Attorney Jose Garza said after the decision was leaked in early May. “I promise to continue fighting for the rights of women and to use my discretion to keep families safe.”
Some states are expected to open up more abortion options. Others, like Texas, will shut them down. If a woman in Texas is considering terminating a pregnancy, Hays has advice.
“I would not take abortion pills to someone in Tyler,” Hays said. “I would have that someone in Tyler come to Dallas, and then hand the pills to them.”
Organizations that support abortion already have advised women that there are work-arounds to terminate early pregnancies, such as shipping the two-step abortion medication from a prescribing doctor in another country. Hays predicts that will be the step many women will take to end an early pregnancy, going forward.
“What I worry about is the woman who has to go to the hospital for medical care because she’s bleeding too much,” Hays said. “She’s going to think, ‘Is something going to happen to me, like it happened to that woman in Starr County?’ That means women won’t get medical care.”
The district attorney in Starr County charged a woman who attempted a self-induced abortion with murder in April, after the heartbeat bill went into effect. Those charges were eventually dropped.
In his own statement, Gov. Greg Abbott said the Legislature has invested almost $500 million to assist pregnant women, including the extension of six months of post-partum care for women who meet the requirements of Medicaid, which is provided for those who live in poverty.
“Texas will always fight for the innocent unborn, and I will continue working with the Texas Legislature and all Texans to save every child from the ravages of abortion and help our expectant mothers in need,” Abbott said in his own statement.
The U.S. Supreme Court took a pass on ruling on Texas’ so-called heartbeat bill, which outlawed abortion after about six weeks of gestation. That’s because the law was crafted in such a way that the state did not have standing to be sued; instead, the law allows individuals to pursue citizen arrests of those who provide an assist a woman getting an abortion.
Planned Parenthood of Texas, which has challenged a number of laws passed by the conservative Texas Legislature, issued its own statement Friday morning.
“Forcing someone to continue a pregnancy against their will is a grave violation of human rights and dignity,” said the leadership of three Texas Planned Parenthood chapters in a joint statement. “All Americans deserve to live under a rule of law that respects their bodily autonomy and reproductive decisions."