Texas' new, incredibly restrictive abortion law, which the U.S. Supreme Court declined to block in a 5-4 decision, has already piqued the interest of other states looking to enact an extreme abortion ban of their own, Time reports.
John Seago, legislative director of the pro-life group Texas Right to Life — which also helped author the bill — told Time he has already heard from other states interested in copying the law's controversial approach, and that the group is even drafting legislation for some.
"This is a valid public policy tool and we're excited to see how it works," said Seago.
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The law's extremism lies not only in that it effectively bans abortions after six weeks — which is before many people even know they're pregnant — but it financially incentivizes private citizens to sue anyone who "aids and abets" in the abortion process, including clinics, physicians, and even rideshare drivers. Brigitte Amiri, deputy director of the Reproductive Freedom Project at the ACLU, said the law "does open the floodgates to lawsuits, and even frivolous lawsuits, just to harass abortion providers."
What's more, because of the way the legislation is written, there's no specific individual or obvious entity for abortion rights advocates to sue over the law's constitutionality. "The Constitution, including Roe v. Wade, only applies against the government, it doesn't apply against private individuals," said Laurence Tribe, a leading constitutional law expert at Harvard University. "That's what makes this really dangerous." Read more at Time.
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