Texas Republicans Pass Abortion Travel Ban
Three county commissioners approved an ordinance Monday that would bar pregnant Texas women from traveling through the unincorporated area of Lubbock County, a county near New Mexico, for an abortion in another state.
Lubbock County is the largest of four Texas counties that have now adopted a version of the measure, which would be enforced through lawsuits filed by private citizens against women or people who help women obtain abortions. It is the same legal mechanism Texas used to enact a strict abortion law in 2021 before the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the state last year to ban nearly all abortions entirely.
Commissioners in the west Texas county adopted the measure 3-0 at a meeting last week, rejecting some requests to postpone the vote.
The measures expand on city ordinances rural Texas cities began passing in 2019 to ban abortion within their boundaries, even if the cities did not have a clinic performing abortions. Critics have attacked the campaign as an effort to intimidate women from seeking abortions in places where it remains legal.
Legal experts have questioned whether the ordinances could be enforced.
“We haven’t had this kind of issue tested, so it’s really kind of a case of first impression,” said Seema Mohapatra, a health law expert and law professor at Southern Methodist University.
“Texans already live under some of the most restrictive and dangerous abortion bans in the country, yet anti-abortion extremists continue to push additional unnecessary, confusing, and fear-inducing barriers to essential healthcare,” said Autumn Keiser, spokesperson for Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas.
Texas is one of 13 states that bans abortion at all stages of pregnancy. In August, a Texas judge ruled that the state's ban was too restrictive for women with pregnancy complications. But that ruling was swiftly put on hold following an appeal by the state.
Abortion rights supporters, including four abortion funds in Texas, said they expected the transport bans to backfire on the anti-abortion movement by galvanizing political participation from abortion rights advocates in the lead-up to next year's presidential election.
"We're going to make sure that there are political and electoral consequences for this," said Rachel O'Leary Carmona, executive director of the Women's March activist organization.
