"It's just the beginning." Several states take an interest in Texas anti-abortion law

By Elizabeth Chuck - NBC News

The ripple effect after the restrictive Texas anti-abortion law came into effect was immediate.

In 24 hours, lawmakers in at least six states - Florida, Arkansas, Indiana, Mississippi, North Dakota and South Dakota - have already shown interest in adopting similar legislation.

Since state legislatures are out of session, most bills will not be introduced immediately.

But abortion rights advocates say the threat to women's reproductive freedom across the United States has already begun, extending well beyond abortion.

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"It is important to realize that the attacks on abortion are not the end of the anti-abortion movement," said Kristin Ford, acting vice president of communications and research for NARAL Pro-Choice America.

"It is not the only objective of his efforts or his vision of the future of this country," he added.

Much of the movement's efforts focus on when a fetus or embryo has rights, leading several states to propose "personality" legislation over the years.

The bills usually define human life as something that begins at the moment of fertilization and propose legal protection from that moment.

These bills could gain momentum and affect access to contraceptives or what happens to unused embryos in IVF procedures, according to Jessica Arons, senior policy and advocacy advisor on reproductive freedom for the American Union of Civil Liberties (ACLU).

She and other reproductive rights experts foresee two consequences of Texas law.

In the short term, they expect more similar anti-abortion laws to be proposed, and other states to emulate the language of Senate Bill 8, which is the first of its kind.

They anticipate that the push for SB 8 could help the anti-abortion movement achieve its broader ambitions.

["An Assault on Rights": Reactions to Texas' Near-Total Abortion Ban]

"Certainly their long-term goal is not just to eliminate legal abortion in this country. It is to enshrine personality in our laws," Arons said.

Law 8 came into effect after a divided Supreme Court refused to block it.

It prohibits abortions once the fetal heart activity is detected, which occurs at six weeks of pregnancy, before many women know they are pregnant.

A unique enforcement mechanism

What makes the law unique is the way it is applied.

The state government does not guarantee compliance, but private citizens, including those outside of Texas, can sue abortion providers or people who help women abort after six weeks, and can receive $ 10,000 more the cost of their legal fees if they win their lawsuits.

The fact that it is the citizens and not the government who enforce the norm "was the axis for the Supreme Court to allow the entry into force of the law," explained Elizabeth Nash, a state policy analyst at the Guttmacher Institute, a non-governmental organization. for-profit organization that investigates reproductive rights.

"They are outsourcing law enforcement. That is key," he said.

Arons said the enforcement mechanism is concerning, and not just for reproductive freedoms.

Texas judge blocks anti-abortion group from enforcing law passed this week against clinic

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"The fact that Texas has discovered this way of circumventing the Constitution by following this route of private enforcement instead of the government is something that really puts all fundamental rights at risk," he said.

"I think this is just the beginning, especially if the Supreme Court continues to choose inaction in the face of threats to fundamental rights."

[Texas' restrictive abortion law will hit Latina women hard, expert says]

SB 8 has made abortion nearly impossible in Texas.

The average one-way distance by car for pregnant women jumped from 12 miles (19 kilometers) to 248 miles (400 kilometers), according to the Guttmacher Institute.

Less than a week after the near-total abortion ban was enforced, other states were already receiving calls from Texas women in need of services.

Last Friday, Dr. Colleen McNicholas, Planned Parenthood's medical director for the St. Louis and Southwest Missouri region, said her health centers were receiving calls from Texas women.

Anti-abortion protesters protest in front of the Supreme Court a decision in Washington on the Louisiana case, Russo v. June Medical Services LLC, on June 29, 2020.AP Photo / Patrick Semansky

"It is a shame that in the country with the most resources in the world people have to travel hundreds of kilometers to receive basic reproductive health care," he said.

Many of the patients come simply to obtain medications, not for a procedure, "he added.

Missouri, where McNicholas is located, could be the next state to ban most abortions: A federal hearing is scheduled this month to review its ban on abortion at eight weeks' gestation, with no exceptions for rape or incest.

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Although the Roe v. Wade case, the landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision that found a woman's right to abortion constitutionally protected, continues to legalize abortions at the federal level, "many of us have already been operating in a post-war world. Roe, "McNicholas noted.

"Many of the people we serve already have such limited access that Roe's value has already been decimated," he said.

"I can't say how many people I've heard say things like 'Roe will never be bypassed.' The reality is that it doesn't have to be bypassed for the effects to be completely devastating in a community," he concluded.