SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Texas banned abortion after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade three years ago. Now Texas lawmakers are working on legislation to further restrict abortion medication sent in from other states. The bill would allow members of the public to file lawsuits against the medicines providers and to keep some of the money. They could bring the suits even if they're not connected to the person who's getting the medication. Olivia Aldridge from member station KUT in Austin joins us. Thanks so much for being with us, Olivia.
OLIVIA ALDRIDGE, BYLINE: Thank you.
SIMON: The bill passed the Texas House and looks headed for passage in the State Senate next week. What is it intended to do?
ALDRIDGE: Well, medication abortion is already banned in Texas, just like surgical abortion, but that hasn't totally stopped people from getting abortion pills here. I mean, people get pills prescribed from a doctor outside the state who mails it here. And anti-abortion legislators want to curb that practice by letting private citizens sue for at least a hundred thousand dollars those prescribers, manufacturers, even someone who helps order those medications, mifepristone and misoprostol, into Texas. And this has been a focus for a while. The state tried to get at this by suing a doctor in New York who prescribed pills to a woman in Texas. But, you know, New York is among the states that has what's called a shield law that protects her from lawsuits like this. I talked to Amy O'Donnell, who represents the anti-abortion group called Texas Alliance for Life.
AMY O'DONNELL: House Bill 7 adds another level of protection, another layer of protection on, just to help ensure that we're doing everything we can to stop chemical abortion drugs from harming women and children in Texas.
ALDRIDGE: So the effect of this could be that cases will end up in federal court to settle these legal conflicts between abortion-rights states and states that ban abortion.
SIMON: And what do abortion-rights advocates say?
ALDRIDGE: Well, they're concerned because this medication abortion through telehealth has really been the only way that many folks are still able to access abortion. And the Guttmacher Institute - a research group that supports reproductive rights - found in 2024 that more abortions are taking place, actually, than before the bans in the U.S. That's because of telemedicine. Donna Howard, a Democratic Texas state representative from Austin, spoke about this on the Texas House floor this week.
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DONNA HOWARD: Let me be clear. The only reason we have not seen a return to the days of coat-hanger abortions is because of the medication abortion pill.
ALDRIDGE: There's also a concern that the cash reward for people who bring suits could incentivize bad actors, and opponents call that a bounty. In some cases, a large part of the reward could also be directed to nonprofits, and that includes anti-abortion nonprofits.
SIMON: How are other states handling this issue, Olivia?
ALDRIDGE: Well, more than a dozen states have banned or tightly restricted abortion since Roe was overturned, but pills are kind of the focus right now because it's so much more difficult to effectively control them. Louisiana has also attempted to sue and even charge an abortion doctor from out of state. There was also a failed effort to get the Supreme Court to roll back FDA approval of mifepristone last year. But abortion legislation out of Texas has been influential because it was early to ban abortion, and other states have tried to adopt some of its methods, so they could possibly follow Texas on this, too.
SIMON: Olivia Aldridge with KUT in Austin, thanks so much.
ALDRIDGE: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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