Texas could soon make it easier for state residents to sue providers of mail-order abortion pills, including out-of-state doctors, along with manufacturers and distributors.
Texas lawmakers in the state House voted along party lines Thursday to advance the bill to the Republican-led Senate, which is expected to vote on it next week.
In 2022, the state enacted a near-total abortion ban shortly after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark ruling that guaranteed the constitutional right to an abortion. That made providing abortion medication within the state illegal, but passage of this new legislation would take it a step further by allowing private citizens to sue providers who send abortion-inducing medication — such as mifepristone and misoprostol — into Texas from other states, even if no abortion took place or a plaintiff has no connection to anyone pregnant.
Blair Wallace, a policy and advocacy strategist on reproductive freedom at the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, told MSNBC on Friday that the bill “exports Texas’ extreme abortion ban far beyond state borders.”








