The State of Texas recently passed a new abortion law that can be enforced by just citizens in which the citizens receive massive award for enforcing the law. .
The new law states that abortions can no longer take place after six weeks from the pregnant person’s last menstrual cycle. The government is not enforcing this law as it requires citizens to enforce by suing.
We have already seen this law being enforced as a Texas doctor, Alan Braid, is now being sued by a former felon from Arkansas. The Washington post reported he does not necessarily care for new law but is just trying to capitalize on the 10,000 dollar reward.
We may see in coming weeks many more situations similar to this as citizens are chasing the incentives the government is offering.
This law can spread throughout the country as The Washington Post Reported that this new law in Texas may be spreading into other states. It is reported that seven states have considered copying Texas’ new abortion law.
The law is protected from the Supreme Court since the law is enforced by private Citizens. This was purposefully designed to withstand any unconstitutional claims.
Sonia Sotomayer, a Supreme Court Justice, said, “an extraordinary step of enlisting private citizens to do what the State could not.” Nothing in this law has been proven to be unconstitutional even though many do not agree with the law.
The law is taking advantage of citizens’ desire for the ten thousand dollar award to enforce this law.
Some feel that this law basically eliminates abortions in the state of Texas. Especially due to the fact many women in the United States do not know that they are pregnant by 6 weeks.
Under these laws it makes it almost impossible for someone to get an abortion. For a woman to try to get a judicial bypass is very difficult and some may say impossible. Once the teenager is able to get infront of the a judge and plead her case as why she should be allowed to get an abortion, the judge now has 5 days to make his decision.
If the judge denies her case, the woman now has no other options but to have the baby. This is due to the fact that an appeal process would take too long.
Many people are upset due to the fact people who were raped have few options to abort the child. Although the Texas Governor, Greg Abbot says, “It provides at least six weeks for a person to be able to get an abortion.” The reason people are upset is that many women do not know they are pregnant till at least four weeks.
The toll on women may be the worst thing for these women as a study of a large number of women found that women who were forced to have the child suffered extreme physical and mental concerns. The concern does not just stop there it also continues with financial struggles.
There will never be a concise opinion on this issue so this problem will continue for years to come.
https://www.texastribune.org/2021/09/10/texas-abortion-law-ban-enforcement/
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/13/opinion/abortion-texas-teens.html?searchResultPosition=2 https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/texas-abortion-doctor-sued/2021/09/20/f5ab5c56-1a1c-11ec-bcb8-0cb135811007_story.html