Three Texas women are sued for wrongful death after allegedly helping friend obtain abortion medication

In the first lawsuit of its kind since Roe v. Wade was overturned, a husband seeks damages from women who allegedly helped his ex-wife obtain the medications to terminate her pregnancy.

BY ELEANOR KLIBANOFF
MARCH 10, 2023

A Texas man is suing three women under the wrongful death statute, alleging that they assisted his ex-wife in terminating her pregnancy, the first such case brought since the state’s near-total ban on abortion last summer.

Marcus Silva is represented by Jonathan Mitchell, the former Texas solicitor general and architect of the state’s prohibition on abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy, and state Rep. Briscoe Cain, R-Deer Park. The lawsuit is filed in state court in Galveston County, where Silva lives.

Continued: https://www.texastribune.org/2023/03/10/texas-abortion-lawsuit/

10.03.2023

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self-managed abortion

Texas sued by women who say state’s abortion bans put their health at risk

By Tierney Sneed, CNN
Tue March 7, 2023

Several women who say Texas’ abortion bans posed significant risks to their health have sued the state this week, opening a new front in the legal battles that have emerged since the Supreme Court overturned national abortion rights protections last year.

Five women allege in the lawsuit that uncertainty around when medical emergency exemptions in Texas’ abortion laws apply exacerbated medical emergencies that put their lives, health and fertility in danger.

Continued: https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/07/politics/texas-women-abortion-lawsuit-health/index.html

Texas abortion funds likely safe from prosecution, federal judge rules

by Eleanor Klibanoff, The Texas Tribune
February 24, 2023

A federal judge issued a favorable ruling for Texas abortion funds, indicating they likely cannot be criminally charged for helping people travel out of state to terminate their pregnancies.

U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman temporarily blocked prosecutors in eight counties from pursuing charges against anyone who helps someone get an abortion outside of Texas. But his ruling indicated he believes the laws he has enjoined them from enforcing may not actually be in effect at all.

Continued: https://sanantonioreport.org/texas-abortion-funds-prosecution-paxton/

24.02.2023

USA – Medical Impact of Roe Reversal Goes Well Beyond Abortion Clinics, Doctors Say

State abortion bans carry narrow but sometimes vague exceptions, and years of prison time. That’s forcing doctors to think like lawyers, and hospitals to create new protocols.

By Kate Zernike
Sept. 10, 2022

In Wisconsin, a group of doctors and lawyers is trying to come up with guidelines on how to comply with a newly revived 173-year-old law that prohibits abortion except to save the life of a pregnant woman. They face the daunting task of defining all the emergencies and conditions that might result in a pregnant woman’s death, and the fact that doctors could be punished with six years in prison if a prosecutor disagrees that abortion was necessary.

A similar task force at an Arizona hospital recommends having a lawyer on call to help doctors determine whether a woman’s condition threatens her life enough to justify an abortion. Already, the hospital has added questions to its electronic medical forms so they can be used to argue that patients who had abortions would have died without them.

Continued: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/10/us/abortion-bans-medical-care-women.html

Texas lawmakers test how far their threats against abortions can reach

Letters warning of felony charges for firms who offer funds could set up a showdown over constitutional rights

Poppy Noor
Sun 24 Jul 2022

Republican lawmakers have sent legal threats to Texas organizations that offer to fund out-of-state travel for abortions, potentially setting up a showdown between abortion law and long-held constitutional rights such as freedom of association and freedom of travel.

The Texas Freedom Caucus, a conservative faction of Republicans in the state legislature, sent a letter on 7 July to a law firm that offered to cover employees’ expenses if they travelled for abortion. It threatened Sidley LLP with felony charges, claiming Texas can criminalize anyone who “furnishes the means” for an abortion, regardless of where the abortion occurs. The letter cites a 1925 law which was not formally repealed after the supreme court codified the right to abortion in Roe v Wade in 1973; last week, the Texas supreme court confirmed the 1925 law can be applied.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jul/23/texas-republican-lawmakers-legal-threats-abortions

How Dobbs is affecting abortion care, one week on

Court battles, new laws, and confusion over abortion policy have left politicians, providers, and patients in a state of flux.

By Ellen Ioanes
Jul 3, 2022

The last few days have seen a flurry of activity amid states reckoning with the Supreme Court decision negating the constitutional right to abortion.

Courtroom battles over abortion access have been ramping up: judges recently postponed the implementation of abortion bans in some states, and allowed others to go into effect. Meanwhile, red state leaders have pushed new restrictions, as some blue states enacted fresh protections for abortion providers. And the Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, is already having dire effects, causing clinic closures and forcing people to travel to obtain abortions.

https://www.vox.com/2022/7/3/23193465/dobbs-roe-abortion-bans-texas-ohio-access-new-jersey-connecticut

03.07.2022

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Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization

Federal appeals court to hear Texas abortion case on Jan. 7

The Supreme Court this month declined to block enforcement of the Texas law but allowed abortion providers in the state to proceed with their legal challenge.

Dec. 27, 2021
By Dartunorro Clark

A federal appeals court said Monday it will hear oral arguments Jan. 7 in a high-profile case centered on the country's most restrictive abortion law.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, based in Louisiana, scheduled the hearing after the Supreme Court this month declined to block enforcement of the Texas law known as S.B. 8 while allowing abortion providers in the state to proceed with their legal challenge.

Continued: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/federal-appeals-court-hear-texas-abortion-case-jan-7-n1286657

27.12.2021

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Supreme Court sends Texas abortion case to appeals court instead of to judge who previously blocked the law

By Robert Barnes and Ann E. Marimow
Dec 16, 2021

The Supreme Court returned the lawsuit over Texas’s restrictive abortion law to a federal appeals court Thursday, rejecting a request by abortion providers to send the case to a district judge who had previously declared the law unconstitutional.

The order came from Justice Neil M. Gorsuch, who last week wrote the majority opinion that left in place the law, which bans most abortions after six weeks. The decision granted a narrow path for providers to challenge the law’s unique enforcement structure.

Continued: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/supreme-court-texas-abortion-case/2021/12/16/79a2e592-5e88-11ec-8665-aed48580f911_story.html

Supreme Court won’t block Texas abortion law but grants expedited review for Nov. 1

by Robert Barnes
Oct 22, 2021

The Supreme Court on Friday said it will consider legal arguments over the Texas abortion law that is the nation’s most restrictive on Nov. 1, and that the law will remain in effect.

The court granted an expedited review of what is called S. B. 8, which the Biden administration in a filing Friday said “has virtually eliminated abortion in Texas after six weeks of pregnancy.”

Continued: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/supreme-court-texas-abortion-law/2021/10/22/e62d4954-334b-11ec-9241-aad8e48f01ff_story.html

Texas targets Roe v. Wade, urges U.S. Supreme Court to maintain abortion ban

By Andrew Chung
Oct 21 (Reuters)

Texas on Thursday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to keep in place a law that imposes a near-total ban on abortion and urged the justices that if they quickly take up a legal challenge brought by President Joe Biden's administration they should overturn the landmark ruling that legalized the procedure nationwide.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in a legal filing
responded to the U.S. Justice Department's request that the Supreme Court
quickly block the Republican-backed state law while litigation over its
legality goes forward.
Continued: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/texas-urges-us-supreme-court-maintain-states-abortion-ban-2021-10-21/

21.10.2021

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