Texas Abortion Pill Lawsuit Challenges Shield Law
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A new lawsuit is challenging Texas’ tough restrictions on medication abortion by suing to block state laws that have led to at least two criminal investigations in the state, although neither has yet resulted in charges.
The federal lawsuit, filed Wednesday in Austin, targets regulations that bar doctors from prescribing abortion pills to women they have not examined in person. Similar laws also have been passed in other Republican-led states as part of a wider crackdown on abortion.
One of the laws was used to investigate a doctor who treats patients in states where telemedicine abortion is allowed. The case was referred to local prosecutors, but no charges have been filed.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of a doctor and a group of abortion rights advocates by the Center for Reproductive Rights, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, and the American Civil Liberties Union. It argues that the restrictions violate the constitutional right to abortion and limit access to medication abortion for Texans who live far from a clinic.
Texas has some of the most restrictive abortion laws in the U.S., including a ban on most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy.
The lawsuit comes as the U.S. Supreme Court is set to consider the constitutionality of Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban, which directly challenges the high court’s landmark Roe v. Wade decision in 1973.
Texas in 2021 passed a law to ban most abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy. That law, which also allows private citizens to sue anyone who helps a woman get an abortion after that period, has displaced the majority of abortions to pharmacies and out-of-state clinics.
The telemedicine abortion probe began after an anti-abortion activist posed as a patient seeking an abortion. The Texas Medical Board opened an investigation and sent the case to the local prosecutor.
Years before the law was passed, federal judges in Texas had already blocked earlier crackdowns, saying telemedicine abortion bans in Texas were likely to be unconstitutional.