Doctors who illegally perform an abortion in Texas, where the procedure is only allowed in exceptional circumstances, now face a life sentence.
Posted at 5:00 a.m.
A new law that came into force on Thursday in response to the US Supreme Court’s decision overturning the ruling Roe v. wade raises the penalty for offending practitioners to an unprecedented level.
Elizabeth Nash, a Guttmacher Institute analyst who studies abortion access laws in the country, notes that most states currently banning pregnancy termination carry a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison or less.
“Life imprisonment is totally out of proportion for practitioners offering a medical service. And it’s terrifying for them,” she says.
The threat of imprisonment is such that even a Texan who meets the exceptions included in the law will have difficulty obtaining an abortion in the state, notes Ms.me Nash.
Doctors, she points out, will want to protect themselves against possible criminal prosecution, and the hospitals where they practice are likely to oppose any such intervention for fear of incurring their own liability.
Only Texan women whose lives are in danger due to pregnancy are allowed to have abortions under the new law, which makes no exception for sexual assault.
“Criminalization of medical decisions”
The law also provides for the imposition of a penalty on the offending physician of the order of $100,000, which constitutes an additional threat to be considered.
In a notice sent to its members in June after the invalidation of Roe v. wadethe Association of County and District Attorneys of Texas noted that this double sanction seems contrary to the provisions of the Constitution.
Half a dozen Texan prosecutors then signed a joint statement with colleagues from many other states condemning the “criminalization of personal medical decisions”.
They had stressed in the same breath that they would refuse to use the resources made available to them to try to convict doctors performing abortions on their territory.
Texan elected officials have retorted that they would try to modify the legislation in force so that the attorneys of neighboring districts can launch prosecutions in place of the recalcitrant.
No lawsuits against women…yet
While toughening penalties for doctors performing abortions, the new Texas law explicitly warns that it is impossible to sue women who obtain the procedure.
Mme Nash notes that elected Republicans, who have multiplied restrictive abortion laws for several years, are reluctant to go down this path, knowing that it would risk arousing a major outcry.
Lawsuits against women are still likely to arise, she warns, as more interventionist states attempt to legislate to prevent them from obtaining abortions in a neighboring state or accessing medication online.
Texas organizations that provide financial assistance to underprivileged women to obtain out-of-territory abortions have halted their services entirely for fear of prosecution.
Tennessee and Idaho
In a statement released this week, Center for Reproductive Rights President Nancy Northup expressed alarm at the coming into force of the new Texas law, which comes at the same time new restrictions were imposed in Tennessee and Idaho. .
“Large swaths of the country, particularly in the South and Midwest, are now abortion deserts from which many women will be unable to escape,” she said.
Elizabeth Nash points out that 11 American states, comprising more than 20% of women of childbearing age, have completely banned abortion on their territory since the Supreme Court decision in June.
This number, she warns, will continue to grow since several other bills in this direction are due to come into force in the coming months.
Ultimately, nearly half of the country’s states will adopt such restrictions, the analyst predicts.