Including HB 1515, which would ban abortions before most Texans even know they are pregnant and opens a backdoor for frivolous civil suits.

Austin, TX – Today, rather than addressing the global COVID-19 pandemic, the House Public Health Committee will hold a hearing for six new abortion restrictions. HB 1515, the House version of SB 8, is unlike any ban ever filed or passed. This bill would allow any person anywhere to sue providers, abortion funds, and family members for virtually any perceived violation of Texas abortion regulations. 

The bill is an unprecedented abuse of the civil legal system to do what the state can not otherwise accomplish through its regulatory powers – and is so far-reaching it would allow a rapist to sue their victim’s doctor, rape counselor, sexual assault nurse examiner, or family. 

Avow Political Director Caroline Duble issued the following statement: 

“The irony of the Public Health Committee wasting valuable time grandstanding on anti-abortion bills that restrict access to healthcare during a global pandemic is not lost on us. Politicians pushing these medically unnecessary, far-reaching restrictions have one politically-motivated goal — to end abortion in Texas — and their extremist agendas have no place in the private healthcare decisions of Texans, their families, and their doctors. 

Coupled with the existing restrictions in Texas, accessing abortion care under the proposed policies would be impossible. The majority of Texans support access to abortion, but extremist Texas legislators are hellbent on passing the dangerous agenda of an out-of-touch anti-abortion lobby.”

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