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JoeOtterbein

(7,698 posts)
Thu May 13, 2021, 10:01 PM May 2021

Texas Passes Bill That Would Create Anti-Abortion Vigilantes

Source: Daily Beast

Texas lawmakers have sent Gov. Greg Abbott a bill that would allow anyone in the state to sue over an abortion performed past six weeks—essentially turning right-to-lifers into courthouse vigilantes.

The law is a twist on the increasingly popular “heartbeat” laws that ban abortions past the date that a heartbeat can be detected—usually around six weeks gestation. (Experts say most embryos do not have a heart at this point, and that the technology is likely picking up an electric signal flutter.) Nine states have passed such six-week bans since 2013; all have been challenged in court and have yet to go into effect.

What differentiates Texas’ bill—and what some lawmakers hope will make it more effective—is the ability for private individuals to sue to enforce it. Under the law, any person who believes that an abortion occurred after a fetal heartbeat can be detected can sue—for minimum suggested damages of $10,000. And they can sue any number of people: the abortion provider, an abortion fund that helped pay for it, even a friend or family member who drove the woman to the clinic.

“It’s unprecedented, there's no question,” Amy Hagstrom-Miller, CEO of Texas-based abortion clinic Whole Woman’s Health, told The Daily Beast. “The idea that just anybody should be able to police a highly trained physician and their staff—that any Joe on the street can make that claim—is just totally shocking."

Read more: https://www.thedailybeast.com/texas-passes-heartbeat-bill-that-would-create-anti-abortion-vigilantes?ref=home



They do what they want, because they can.
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Lonestarblue

(9,880 posts)
4. They care only about their freedom to force others to live by their beliefs.
Thu May 13, 2021, 10:20 PM
May 2021

They don’t actually cate about women or the babies they’re forced to have. If they did, Texas would not have a maternal death rate that equals a third-world country or the largest number of people in the country with no health insurance. Republicans everywhere are mean, nasty people, but those in Texas occupy a special place for nastiness and cruelty just because they can.

carpetbagger

(4,384 posts)
3. Anyone thinking what I'm thinking?
Thu May 13, 2021, 10:14 PM
May 2021

This is how we beat the gun lobby. In the meantime, the law will strike too close at the zone where most anti-abortion voters won't let the legislation go... The ability to outlaw abortion while maintaining the right for the three closest women in each of their lives.

bucolic_frolic

(42,679 posts)
8. Yes, very much so. Extended liability, not to mention age discrimination.
Fri May 14, 2021, 06:48 AM
May 2021

This law is Pandora's Box to product liability.

TheBlackAdder

(28,076 posts)
5. Every birth above stasis adds $350K in local, county & state tax burdens over 18 years.
Fri May 14, 2021, 12:49 AM
May 2021

.

Just add a flat 10,000 new births each and every year, for 18 years, when emancipation occurs, and Texas will have an additional $3.4 Billion in local, county and state taxes to deal with. And that's not accounting for inflation.

.

NullTuples

(6,017 posts)
6. It would seem perhaps the purpose is to encourage nuisance lawsuits
Fri May 14, 2021, 02:44 AM
May 2021

And depending on how the bill is written there may be no liability for trying.

But clinics and hospitals must answer to every single one filed.

CrispyQ

(36,234 posts)
9. They are opening the door for the man to control the woman's decision.
Fri May 14, 2021, 11:36 AM
May 2021

That's what they want, ultimately, for the man to dictate to the woman what she can do. For now they say to force women to carry to term, but once they take our choice away, the reverse could also be true—they could force women to have abortions. Remember the sterilizations down at the border?

I'm so sick of this fucking shit.

skypilot

(8,848 posts)
11. Could someone explain to me...
Fri May 14, 2021, 11:51 AM
May 2021

...how the person filing suit would "have standing" to file such a suit? Was that explained anywhere in the article? I was too disgusted to read the whole thing.

Ilsa

(61,675 posts)
13. That's serious harassment.
Fri May 14, 2021, 06:32 PM
May 2021

Something I might would shoot back over, if I've been threatened and feel like I'm about to be robbed using the courthouse as a proxy.

skypilot

(8,848 posts)
15. I have been to Austin...
Fri May 14, 2021, 09:30 PM
May 2021

...which is an awesome city but in those moments when I imagine living there I am brought back to reality by the fact that I would be surrounded by the REST of Texas.

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