Texas Senate passes bill to block abortion pills from being mailed into the state

UPDATE, 9/3/25: SB 6's partner bill, HB 30, was not called for a vote during the legislative session. Governor Greg Abbott called a second special session, during which an identical bill was introduced in the Texas House, HB 7, which has now made its way to the Texas Senate.

8/19/25: Last Tuesday, the Texas Senate passed SB 6, the Woman and Child Protection Act, further restricting the abortion pill and allowing private citizens to file lawsuits against people or companies that manufacture or distribute abortion-inducing drugs in the state.

Key Takeaways:

• The Texas Senate passed SB 6 last week, prohibiting the mailing, transporting, prescribing, or providing of abortion-inducing drugs.

• The bill also allows individuals to file lawsuits against those who distribute the abortion drugs in Texas.

• SB 6 will now head to the Texas House, where a similar bill failed earlier this year.

The Details:

SB 6, filed by Sen. Bryan Hughes, states “a person may not: (1) manufacture or distribute an abortion-inducing drug in this state; or (2) mail, transport, deliver, prescribe, or provide an abortion-inducing drug in any manner to or from any person or location in this state.”

The law would allow for the use of the drugs for medical emergencies and miscarriage treatment, and women who take the drugs would not face prosecution.

“The moms are victims here,” Hughes said. “What we will go after with SB 6 is the manufacturers and the distributors of these drugs that are making them for the purpose of illegal abortions.”

He added, “It goes directly to the pocketbooks of these companies that are making and sending the pills to Texas.”

The bill allows Texas citizens to sue anyone who violates the law and provides abortion-inducing drugs to women in Texas. It states that “a person, other than a political subdivision of this state, or an officer or employee of this state or a political subdivision of this state, has standing to bring and may bring a qui tam action against a person who violates” the law.

As explained by Cornell Law School, “In a qui tam action, a relator brings an action against a person or company on the government’s behalf. The government, not the relator, is considered the plaintiff. If the government succeeds, the relator bringing the suit receives a share of the award.”

The bill also includes a “clawback provision,” which would prevent other states from suing Texas residents in retribution for initiating such lawsuits.

The idea behind the bill is the same one Hughes used with the Texas Heartbeat Act in 2021 to dissuade abortion businesses and proponents from carrying out abortions.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick celebrated the bill’s passage.

“We passed SB 6… to ensure that abortion-inducing drugs are not distributed in Texas for the purpose of obtaining an illegal abortion,” he said. “The Texas Senate will continue passing this pro-life protection each legislative session.”

A similar bill passed the Senate during the regular legislative session; however, it died in the House.

1st Trimester Abortion | The Abortion Pill | What Is Abortion?

The Backstory:

In December 2024, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against New York abortionist Margaret Carpenter after she mailed abortion-inducing drugs to a woman in Texas. The woman suffered serious complications from the pills and required emergency care. Carpenter is the same abortionist who was later indicted in Louisiana for mailing the abortion pill to a teen in that state; that teen, too, was injured and required emergency treatment.

In February, a judge issued a permanent injunction to prohibit Carpenter from prescribing abortion-inducing drugs to Texas residents, and ordered her to pay a $100,000 fine and $13,000 in attorneys’ fees and court costs, plus interest. Officials in New York vowed to protect Carpenter, and a county clerk in New York twice refused to file the summary judgment against her, which would have required her to pay the fine. He invoked the state’s “shield law” protecting law-breaking abortionists.

SB 6 will now head to the House for a vote.

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