30-day countdown begins on Texas trigger law as Supreme Court makes abortion ruling final | U.S. & World

WASHINGTON — The 30-day countdown for Texas’ trigger ban on abortion officially began Tuesday after the U.S. Supreme Court issued the official judgment reversing Roe v. Wade. The law will further restrict and complicate a crowded legal landscape.

The Supreme Court issued an opinion and order in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization on June 24, which reversed the constitutional right to an abortion under Roe. However, the judgment in the case was not released until Tuesday, closing the door to additional rehearings or appeals in the case.

Texas is one of 13 states that had a trigger ban in place before the Supreme Court decision. In the month since justices overturned Roe, the landmark abortion rights case that originated in Dallas County, abortion providers have at least temporarily blocked the bans from going into effect with legal action. Other states have moved to restrict or protect abortion access in state legislatures.

Idaho and Tennessee also have trigger laws that will go into effect in 30 days now that the judgment has been issued.

The Texas Legislature passed trigger ban House Bill 1280, also known as the Human Life Protection Act, in 2021.

The law bans all abortions, with exceptions for medical emergencies, and makes it a first-degree felony to knowingly perform or induce an abortion, or a second-degree felony to attempt an abortion. The penalty for the first-degree offense is five years to life in prison and a fine of $100,000.

While the trigger ban has not gone into effect, abortion is already banned in the state. The Texas Supreme Court allowed a pre-Roe ban on abortion to go into effect on July 1, exactly one week after the constitutional right to an abortion was revoked.

The decision overturned a ruling by a Harris County judge that allowed abortions before six-weeks to temporarily resume. The law prohibits a person from administering or assisting in the administration of an abortion, with penalties of two to five years in prison and a fine between $100 and $1,000.

Originally, it was unclear if this law would go into effect because it was deemed unconstitutional by Roe in 1973. However, Texas lawmakers never repealed the law.

The implementation of the pre-Roe ban, alongside the Dobbs decision, had a chilling effect on abortion clinics. Immediately after Roe was reversed, Whole Woman’s Health and Planned Parenthood, two of the largest abortion providers, announced they had ceased services in Texas.

Whole Woman’s Health announced July 6 it was shutting down four of its Texas abortion clinics and raising money to reopen in New Mexico, which has greater protections for abortion access and has historically served Texans seeking out-of-state abortions.

“We are acting as if it has already happened,” Michelle Anderson, policy associate at the Afiya Center, said about planning to deal with the trigger ban ahead of the Supreme Court’s final judgment.

Anderson said with the trigger ban and the essential end of abortion in Texas, there will be a disproportionate impact on Black women, who are also more likely to die from maternal morbidity than any other ethnic groups.

She added that Black women will face greater impacts in other ways because Black women have access to less information and fewer resources to travel outside the state for an abortion, and that lack of access reduces choices and creates generational poverty.

“You have all of these things that are playing in an intersectional way when we’re talking about the ramifications of these two laws and what it’s going to do for Black people,” Anderson said.

Even before the ruling, abortions after six weeks were banned through Senate Bill 8, which empowered citizens to file lawsuits against those who aided in an abortion. Texas Policy Evaluation Project found that 49.8% fewer abortions were performed in the state in September 2021, the month SB 8 went into effect, than September 2020.

A poll conducted in the week ahead of the Supreme Court’s decision showed most Texans did not support the trigger ban. The poll also showed only 15% of respondents supported a total ban on abortion.

For abortion opponents, the implementation of the trigger ban and the overall success of other abortion bans in Texas signal a win.

“We are very happy that the Legislature has passed this law to protect unborn children from the tragedy of abortion, along with passing some other measures to help pregnant women with unplanned pregnancies,” said Joe Pojman, founder and executive director of Texas Alliance for Life, ahead of the judgment’s release.

He added that since the pre-Roe ban went into effect, all 23 Texas abortion clinics his organization tracked had ceased performing procedures. Meanwhile, he said 350 pregnancy centers, adoption agencies and maternity homes have continued operating throughout the state.

“In our view the Human Life Protection Act is the last stake in the heart of the abortion industry in Texas,” Pojman said.

The decision to reverse Roe, a nearly 50-year precedent, has also caused concern for contraception access and LGBT rights among activists. While Justice Samuel Alito explicitly wrote the Dobbs decision only applied to abortion, Justice Clarence Thomas in a concurring opinion wrote other due process precedents like Lawrence vs. Texas and Obergefell vs. Hodges should be reconsidered.

In response, congressional Democrats have introduced several pieces of legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives to codify protections for same-sex and interracial marriage, contraception and abortion access.

The bills passed the House with varying levels of bipartisan support — however, it is still unclear how successful measures will be in the Senate.

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