Is there anything in the Texas anti abortion law that just went into effect that stops anyone from suing someone that assists a woman from Texas getting an out of state abortion? If I’m a Texas resident and I drive a woman from Texas to New Mexico to get an abortion, am I subject to a lawsuit from a Texas resident? I’ve been listening to the news and waiting for someone to address this but everyone seems to be assuming that Texas women will be able to travel out of state to get an abortion. I’m wondering if someone assisting a woman from Texas to get an abortion out of state will be subject to being sued.
From everything I’ve seen, the law specifies that it applies to abortion procedures carried out in the state of Texas.
It’s my understanding (but I’m not 100% sure on this) that there have been some state laws that tried to address abortion procedures carried out in other states and they were all struck down as unconstitutional, not based on Roe v. Wade, but on the basis of the interstate commerce clause. I think the framers of this law very deliberately tried to craft it to sidestep the pitfalls that have gotten previous abortion restriction laws struck down. They very deliberately made sure this Texas state law only applied to conduct wholly in the jurisdiction of the state of Texas precisely so it couldn’t be challenged on those grounds.
The law includes the following definition:
(4) “Physician” means an individual licensed to
practice medicine in this state, including a medical doctor and a
doctor of osteopathic medicine.
One could infer that nobody can touch you legally for what you do outside of Texas.
Lawrence Tribe was on MSNBC last night, and pointed out that anyone in the US can sue. You do not have to be a Texas resident. And if you drove someone from Texas to some other state, your actions would have taken place in Texas.