It wasn’t enough for Gov. Greg Abbott to sign a bill banning abortions after six weeks, before women even knew they were pregnant, and giving a green light to anti-abortion vigilantes to file civil suits—with a $10,000 reward if they prevail—against abortion providers and anyone who helps a woman obtain an abortion, on Friday he signed another bill, Senate Bill 4, to make it harder for a woman to obtain an abortion-inducing drug.
The law, which takes effect in December, prohibits anyone “from providing an abortion‑inducing drug to a pregnant woman without satisfying the applicable informed consent requirements for abortions.” Violating the requirements is a jail felony punishable up to two years in jail and a fine not exceeding $10,000.
The bill “prohibits a manufacturer, supplier, physician, or any other person from providing a patient with any abortion-inducing drug by courier, delivery, or mail service and requires a physician, before providing an abortion-inducing drug, to take certain actions. The bill requires the physician’s examination of the pregnant woman to be done in person and clarifies that the requirement for the physician to document the gestational age and intrauterine location of the pregnancy is for the purpose of determining whether an ectopic pregnancy exists. The bill clarifies that the woman’s required follow-up visit must occur within a 14-day period following the date an abortion-inducing drug is administered and that the physician must assess any continued blood loss at that visit.”
Despite the US Supreme Court’s ruling in Roe v. Wade that made abortion legal, Texas anti-abortionists in the legislature and Abbott think otherwise: “Senate Bill 4 establishes that nothing in the bill’s provisions shall be construed as creating or recognizing a right to abortion and that it is not the intention of the bill to make lawful an abortion that is otherwise unlawful.”
Despite not knowing how women’s bodies work, Abbott wants to control them.
Bev Conover is the editor and publisher of Intrepid Report. Email her at editor@intrepidreport.com.
