Impact of Texas anti-abortion law is worse than you thought
The anti-abortion law that took effect in Texas last month set a new standard for malicious attacks on women’s reproductive health rights.
But it’s a fair bet that the full breadth of its malice against anyone seeking an abortion isn’t as widely known. Its noxious features, however, were laid out in meticulous detail Wednesday by federal District Judge Robert Pitman of Austin.
Pitman temporarily blocked the law’s implementation in a painstakingly reasoned 113-page ruling in a lawsuit brought by the federal government. In the process, he took a well-aimed shot at the U.S. Supreme Court majority that allowed it to go into effect Sept. 1.
Asked by Texas to stay his preliminary injunction until the state could take an appeal to the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, which is known as a very conservative court, Pitman flatly refused.
Unlike the Supreme Court majority, “this Court will not sanction one more day of this offensive deprivation of such an important right,” he stated.
Pitman’s accounting of the law’s evils underscores the irresponsibility of corporate leaders with interests in Texas who have remained silent.
High on the list of complicit business leaders is Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk, who announced last week that he would move Tesla’s headquarters to Austin. That move will restrict the reproductive rights of the women in his Texas workforce and place his entire headquarters staff squarely in the crosshairs of the Texas law.
Does he care? Texas Gov. Greg Abbott claimed Musk told him he “had to get out of California because, in part, of the social policies” in California and that Musk “consistently tells me that he likes the social policies in the state of Texas.”
Musk tweeted, “In general, I believe government should rarely impose its will upon the people, and, when doing so, should aspire to maximize their cumulative happiness.”
The law criminalizes abortions performed after six weeks of pregnancy, a deadline that can arrive before many women even know they’re pregnant. It contains no exceptions for pregnancies resulting from rape or incest or for fetal health conditions incompatible with life after birth.
The law creates liability for anyone who “knowingly” aids or abets the performance of an abortion violating its terms. It doesn’t define aiding or abetting, though it does specify that paying for or reimbursing the costs of an abortion would qualify.
The pioneering feature of the law is that it places enforcement in the hands not of government authorities, but of any private individual who chooses to bring suit. They can sue for injunctions to stop abortions, and can collect damages of at least $10,000 from their targets, as well as court costs and attorney fees.
What may be less widely known about the law are the constraints it places on targets trying to defend themselves. They can’t raise the defense that they believed the law is unconstitutional. They can’t claim they relied on a court decision overturning the law if it was later overruled, even if it was in place when they acted.
Defendants can’t recover costs and attorney fees, even if they prevail in court.
“By eliminating safe and legal options, they only force abortion care underground with potentially devastating consequences,” Melaney Linton, the head of the Houston-area Planned Parenthood unit, testified in Pitman’s court.
The law’s burden has disproportionate economic and racial impact. “Pregnant patients who seek abortion care are often lowincome and below the federal poverty line,” Allison Gilbert, a Dallas clinician, told the court.
“This number is even higher for women of color; 19.1% of Black women and 20.5% of Latina women live in poverty in Texas,” she said.
This, then, is the legal regime implicitly sanctioned by businesses that stay silent or, worse, decide to establish or expand their operations in benighted Texas. That includes Oracle and Hewlett Packard Enterprise, two Silicon Valley stalwarts that announced in December plans to move their headquarters to Texas. Musk responded to Abbott’s boasting about his state’s social policies with a tweet stating, “I would prefer to stay out of politics.”
Here’s a tip for Musk and his fellow would-be Texas business tycoons: You can’t stay out of politics. You’re a major employer, and politics impact your employees every day. If you really want to save the world as you claim, you should start right here.