The Texas Abortion Bill Explained

In early September, reproductive rights activists heard the news they have been dreading for years. In a 5-4 vote, the Supreme Court refused to block a Texas abortion law that bans abortions after six weeks, including in cases of rape and incest, and allows people to sue both clinics and individuals who help someone get an abortion.

The decision sparked outrage because the narrow limitations of the law effectively ban 85 to 90 percent of abortions that happen before the six-week mark. The six-week deadline is supposed to mark the amount of time before a “fetal heartbeat” can be detected; however, scientists have debunked the claim that fetuses have a heartbeat at six weeks. As the FBomb has previously reported, the “heartbeat” that these bills reference is actually just a thickening tip of a yolk sac called a fetal pole.

The Texas bill wouldn’t be the first time that anti-choice politicians have used blatant lies to limit women’s reproductive choices, and it likely won’t be the last. Since the Court’s decision, politicians in other states have expressed interest in proposing similar laws in their states.

Previously, courts have struck down these kinds of heartbeat laws, and even the Supreme Court has protected the right to have an abortion before the fetus can survive outside the womb (22 to 24 weeks). Their lack of objection signals a disturbing precedent. Over the past five years, the Court has been stacked with conservative judges, two of which were shoehorned through the confirmation process by Senator Mitch McConnell.

The new partisanship of the Court led many activists to fear that Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court case which confirmed the right to an abortion, would be overturned by the Court. In recent years, anti-choice politicians have made a concerted push to get the Court to overturn Roe by passing ridiculous legislation with the hope that it would one day make it to the Supreme Court.

After a federal judge blocked a Georgia law in 2019, Buzzfeed writer Emma O’Connor wrote what now feels like an eerie premonition: “anti-abortion advocates are hoping that [Supreme Court] will take up the laws and decide in their favor, either greatly restricting abortion access throughout the country or overturning Roe v. Wade entirely, enabling the legality of abortion to be determined state by state.”