A month ago, Ohio voters added reproductive rights to our constitution. Now, abortion is guaranteed to the point of fetal viability. Beyond that point, you just need the medical opinion of a single doctor that the abortion would improve the health of the mother (including her mental health) to secure an abortion.
If this woman gets on a plane to Cleveland this morning, she can be back in Texas tonight, minus a doomed fetus.
The code went live and we have upgrades and patches ready to go, but first we need product manager approval from 50 stadiums full of competing tribes of angry baboons.
Yes, it is S.B 8. It is a completely messed up bill that allows anyone to sue someone for $10,000, plus court and attorney fees, for performing an abortion or aiding or abetting in an abortion. In other words, if someone gets an abortion, anyone can sue them, their doctor, the nurses, the Uber driver who took them to the clinic, their husband who agreed with their decision, or anyone else who could be said to have helped them get an abortion.
One bit of good news is that, in one case, a judge decided that you need to have standing to sue. That means that in order to sue someone under the law, you need to be personally affected by the abortion.
San Antonio judge Aaron Hass dismissed Gomez’ case Thursday, and that dismissal pointed to a central problem with S.B. 8: it has the potential to allow the wrong people to wage abortion lawsuits. Hass announced the dismissal of Gomez’s case from the bench and explained that plaintiffs like Gomez, who have no connection to the prohibited abortion and have not been harmed by it, do not have standing suit under the statute.
Yes, they are fighting it; no, they have not been able to block it from being added to the constitution. It became effective as of Thursday, December 7th.
In Ohio, she could. No need to even notify her parents let alone gain their consent. That's my point: we aren't all monsters on this side of the Atlantic, even in bright red states like Ohio.
Kansas protected reproductive rights through constitutional referendum. It doesn't get much redder than Kansas.
I don't even think this is Texas or Texans. I think this is Ken Paxton.