Abortion opponents laud bill that would clamp down on pill providers and out-of-state abortions

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A wide-ranging crackdown on abortion pills, out-of-state travel and other ways Texans are evading the state’s near-total abortion ban drew zealous support from abortion opponents who said during a Senate committee meeting on Thursday that illegal trafficking of abortion pills harms women.

Sen. Bryan Hughes, R-Mineola, authored Senate Bill 2880, which legal experts say is the most comprehensive attempt yet to stop Texans from accessing abortion pills or out-of-state abortions.

The bill would target online pill providers and tech companies that host abortion-related websites, and make it a felony, punishable by up to life in prison, to pay or reimburse the costs of an abortion, a direct hit on abortion funds, which help cover the costs of out-of-state abortions. It would also expand the ability of private citizens to bring wrongful death lawsuits against pill providers after an abortion and empower the attorney general’s office to more easily prosecute abortion offenses.

By going after the internet service providers, social media sites and search engines that power these websites, Texas could potentially undermine the entire network of pills and providers serving abortion-ban states.

“Senate Bill 2880 is a big toolbox of policies for Texas to fight back against these websites,” said John Seago, president of Texas Right to Life, during Thursday’s hearing of the Senate State Affairs Committee. “Texas will be leading other states on how we can fight this concerning trend.”

A large body of research has shown abortion drug mifepristone, first approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2000, to be safe and effective. But anti-abortion groups have been actively pushing to get the medications restricted or even moved off the market through lawsuits and legislation.

Anti-abortion groups told lawmakers during the hearing that pregnant people in Texas are receiving pills such as mifepristone and misoprostol in the mail without any information about how to take them, or guidelines on follow-up care. Providers shared stories about women hemorrhaging at home or struggling to dispose of the remains of an aborted fetus.

“I see women suffering daily from the effects of incomplete chemical abortions,” said Whitney Freeman, director of medical services at Prestonwood Pregnancy Center, an anti-abortion crisis pregnancy center in the Dallas area.

Freeman said sometimes women receive pills in the mail with no medical instructions, or with instructions in a foreign language such as Russian. Patients are told not to tell medical providers that they are in the process of a chemical abortion, which can then prevent them from receiving the care they need, Freeman said

SB 2880, called the Woman and Child Protection Act, would allow private citizens to sue for up to $100,000 per violation of the law. This is an escalation of the legal framework that allowed Texas to ban nearly all abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy in 2021.

Critics of the bill told lawmakers on Thursday that the legislation demonstrates government overreach and would infringe upon constitutional free speech.

Austin Kaplan, an Austin attorney who sued over the 2021 law, told The Texas Tribune that it was inevitable that lawmakers would keep pushing to expand the use of this private enforcement mechanism. He said this bill, as written, would likely be challenged in court, although he noted that hasn’t stopped Texas lawmakers before.

“Looking at this, it looks just completely impossible,” he said. “But what’s the penalty for the Legislature? The legislator gets reelected. They don’t pay out of pocket for this litigation.”

The committee also signaled its support of a priority bill for Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, which would prohibit cities and counties from using taxpayer dollars to pay for out-of-state abortions and travel. Senate Bill 33 targets Austin and San Antonio, which have designated $400,000 and $500,000, respectively, to assist residents with costs associated with navigating abortion bans.

State law already prevents taxpayer funds from being used to pay for abortions, but some cities have “worked to exploit a loophole,” said bill author Sen. Donna Campbell, R-New Braunfels, by using taxpayer funds to pay for travel accommodations, child care and other expenses women incur when they seek out-of-state abortions.

“We have so many things we need to be spending our taxpayer dollars on,” said San Antonio City Council Member Marc Whyte, who testified in favor of the bill. “Not once have I heard the residents of San Antonio saying they want their tax dollars spent on sending women to other states to receive abortions.”

Under SB 33, the attorney general or any Texas resident could bring a civil legal action against cities that misuse funds by paying to facilitate abortions.

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