Texas lawmakers pass bill to stop flow of abortion pills into state

Lawmakers in the Texas Senate voted to pass Texas House Bill 7 (HB 7) this week during a second special session called by Governor Greg Abbott. The bill "prohibits the manufacture, distribution, mailing, transportation, delivery, and prescription of abortion-inducing pills for the purpose of obtaining an illegal abortion."

Key Takeaways:

• HB 7 "prohibits the manufacture, distribution, mailing, transportation, delivery, and prescription of abortion-inducing pills for the purpose of obtaining an illegal abortion."

• The bill also allows individuals to file private lawsuits against those who would violate the law.

• Critics of the bill claim it will prevent women from receiving pregnancy and miscarriage care, despite existing Texas law clearly stating otherwise.

The Backstory:

Prior to the special session called by Gov. Greg Abbott, HB 7 or The Woman and Child Protection Act passed in the Texas Senate as SB 6, but its companion bill, HB 30, was not brought for a vote due to the absence of too many state representatives. The Texan reported, "Its lower chamber companion, House Bill 30 by state Rep. Jeff Leach (R-Plano), was filed on August 8 but has yet to receive a hearing as House Speaker Dustin Burrows (R-Lubbock) cannot refer it to a House committee without a quorum.”

During this special session, the Texas House introduced the same bill, renamed as HB 7, and it passed the House this week. It then made its way to the Senate, where it passed out of Committee.

The Details:

HB 7 seeks to close a loophole in the state's current pro-life law that protects most preborn children from abortion. The bill would ensure that the abortion pill cannot legally be circulated within the state. It would prohibit all organizations, distributors, healthcare providers, and individuals from circulating the abortion pill, while stating that the abortion drugs mifepristone and misoprostol can still be prescribed for other, non-abortion purposes.

Enforcement of the bill would be via private lawsuits, like the enforcement of the state's Heartbeat Act, allowing individuals to sue anyone who violates the law by trafficking abortion pills. Women who take the abortion drugs are exempt from being sued.

The bill passed the House last week and passed the Senate in a vote on Wednesday. Texas Right to Life noted in an email, "The Woman and Child Protection Act... now heads toward Governor Greg Abbott and will take effect in early December."

The legislation's Senate sponsor, Sen. Bryan Hughes, said the bill's aim is to stop the killing of preborn children while protecting the health and safety of women.

“This bill says if you are going to manufacture or ship these illegal, poisonous pills to Texas for the purpose of killing little unborn babies and hurting moms, you will be held accountable,” Hughes said.

The Other Side:

In arguing against the bill, critics inexplicably claimed it would prevent the state's doctors from providing miscarriage treatment.

Texas Policy Research wrote:

The Texas Medical Association warned the bill could have a chilling effect on doctors, making them hesitant to prescribe drugs even in cases of miscarriage or sepsis. Physicians pointed to Texas’s rising maternal mortality rate as evidence that lawmakers should expand healthcare access rather than restrict it further. Personal testimony during committee hearings also highlighted the emotional toll, such as a woman who miscarried and struggled to prove she needed medication for legitimate medical reasons.

Here are the facts:

• Despite what the Texas Medical Association would have people believe, the majority of OB/GYNs do not commit abortions. This bill would not prevent any healthcare provider from continuing to provide medical care to pregnant and miscarrying women.

• Neither mifepristone or misoprostol, the two drugs which make up the abortion pill regimen, are prescribed for sepsis (though women have reportedly died from sepsis after taking the abortion pill mifepristone, and mifepristone has a black box warning for sepsis).

• Mifepristone and/or misoprostol may be used in an instance in which a woman has a miscarriage and needs to pass the remains of her preborn child. However, such a situation is explicitly specified in Texas law as not being an abortion.

• The state's law protecting preborn children from abortion clearly defines abortion as an act with the intent of killing the preborn child, while noting that taking a drug typically used for abortion for other medical reasons is not an abortion.

The law states (emphases added):

'Abortion-inducing drug' means a drug, a medicine, or any other substance, including a regimen of two or more drugs, medicines, or substances, prescribed, dispensed, or administered with the intent of terminating a clinically diagnosable pregnancy of a woman and with knowledge that the termination will, with reasonable likelihood, cause the death of the woman’s unborn child. The term includes off-label use of drugs, medicines, or other substances known to have abortion-inducing properties that are prescribed, dispensed, or administered with the intent of causing an abortion, including the Mifeprex regimen, misoprostol (Cytotec), and methotrexate.  The term does not include a drug, medicine, or other substance that may be known to cause an abortion but is prescribed, dispensed, or administered for other medical reasons.

The same drugs used in the abortion pill regimen may still be used without question in cases of miscarriage, as long as the provider first confirms that the child has already died — a process which would be standard medical procedure as well as common sense.

The Bottom Line:

Representative Jeff Leach, who sponsored HB 7 in the House, emphasized its importance in protecting preborn children.

“This bill is about our fellow Texans. This bill is about our future fellow Texans, specifically. They are unborn, but they are alive, and they are worthy of our focus and our work here tonight on this bill," he said during House debate.

"These fellow Texans have hands and feet. They have fingers and toes. They have eyes and eyelids, ears, and noses. They have unique personalities. They have brain waves. They have heartbeats. And they have rights.”