Texas Heartbeat Act

rdf:langString Texas Heartbeat Act

rdf:langString An Act relating to abortion, including abortions after detection of an unborn child's heartbeat; authorizing a private civil right of action.

rdf:langString Texas Heartbeat Act

rdf:langString in force

rdf:langString The Texas Heartbeat Act, Senate Bill 8 (SB 8), is an act of the Texas Legislature that bans abortion after the detection of embryonic or fetal cardiac activity, which normally occurs after about six weeks of pregnancy. The law took effect on September 1, 2021, after the U.S. Supreme Court denied a request for emergency relief from Texas abortion providers. It is the first time a state has successfully imposed a six-week abortion ban since Roe v. Wade, and the first abortion restriction to rely solely on enforcement by private individuals through civil lawsuits, rather than having state officials enforce the law with criminal or civil penalties. The act authorizes members of the public to sue anyone who performs or facilitates an illegal abortion for a minimum of $10,000 in statutory damages per abortion, plus court costs and attorneys' fees. The Texas Heartbeat Act has been subjected to numerous lawsuits in state and federal court, but the statute has thus far withstood each of these court challenges and remains in effect. Lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of the Act have been filed by abortion providers and advocates, as well as the United States Department of Justice, but none of these lawsuits have been able to restore access to post-heartbeat abortions in Texas. The law has been exceedingly difficult to challenge in court because of its unique enforcement mechanism, which bars state officials from enforcing the law and instead authorizes private individuals to sue anyone who performs or assists a post-heartbeat abortion. Because the law is enforced by private citizens rather than government officials, abortion providers have been unable to obtain relief that will stop private lawsuits from being initiated against them. This produced an end-run around Roe v. Wade, which had established a federal constitutional right to abortion, because the threat of private civil-enforcement lawsuits forced abortion providers to comply with SB 8 despite its incompatibility with the Supreme Court's then-existing abortion pronouncements. Even when courts have declared SB 8 unconstitutional, abortion providers have remained in compliance with the Act because it purports to subject individuals to private civil-enforcement lawsuits if they perform or assist a post-heartbeat abortion while an injunction that blocks the law's enforcement is in effect, if that injunction is later vacated or reversed on appeal. On October 6, 2021, federal district Judge Robert L. Pitman issued a preliminary injunction that blocked the state of Texas from enforcing the law, which remained in effect until the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued a stay of Pitman's order two days later. Yet Pitman's order was unable to fully restore access to post-heartbeat abortions in Texas, even during the 48-hour window in which it was in effect, because abortion providers were unwilling to risk the civil liability that would be imposed if Pitman's injunction were stayed or overturned by a higher court. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to overturn the Fifth Circuit's stay of Pitman's ruling, so any post-heartbeat abortions performed in reliance on Pitman's injunction are subject to private civil-enforcement lawsuits under the terms of SB 8. This has made it difficult for abortion providers to resume services even when they obtain relief from a lower court that pronounces the statute unconstitutional, and it has further frustrated efforts to thwart the statute's enforcement in court. The success of the Texas Heartbeat Act was a major blow to Roe v. Wade, as it provided a blueprint for states to outlaw abortion while insulating their laws from effective judicial review. This enabled the states to evade Roe v. Wade and other Supreme Court rulings that had declared abortion to be a constitutionally protected right. It also led other states to copy SB 8’s enforcement mechanism and immunize their restrictive abortion laws from judicial review. On May 25, 2022, Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt signed HB 4327 into law, which outlaws abortion from the moment of fertilization. Because HB 4237, like the Texas Heartbeat Act, is enforced solely through civil lawsuits brought by private citizens, abortion providers were unable to stop the law in court and ceased performing abortions in Oklahoma, even though the Supreme Court had not yet overruled Roe v. Wade when the statute took effect. Idaho has also enacted a six-week abortion ban modeled after the Texas Heartbeat Act, which has prevented abortion providers from challenging the constitutionality of the statute in federal court.

rdf:langString Full Text of SB 8 with signatures of: