Texas abortion law includes bounty system

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roronoa79
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02 Sep 2021, 3:19 pm

The new Texas anti-abortion law includes a provision whereby those who successfully prosecute someone who has an abortion will have their legal fees covered and be paid $10,000 per case:

Texas’s new anti-abortion law turns citizens into bounty hunters

Quote:
Texas is at war against women’s reproductive rights, and turning its citizens into an army.

The state’s new anti-abortion law, which goes into effect today, bans all abortions—including in pregnancies resulting from rape or incest—as soon as a fetal heartbeat is detected. This occurs around six weeks after conception, or before many women would even know they are pregnant. The only exception to the rule is a medical emergency.

This is the most restrictive anti-abortion law in the country, and one of the most extreme in the world. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) had asked the Supreme Court an emergency ruling to block the law, but the court didn’t respond.

An army of anti-abortion vigilantes
Making the law even more extraordinary, the power of enacting the ban isn’t in the state’s hands, but in those of its citizens.

According to the law, private citizens can sue the physician who performed an abortion after the sixth week, as well as anyone who helped facilitate it, from counselors to anyone providing financial support for the procedure to someone who simply drove the woman to the clinic with the knowledge that she was getting an abortion.

The complainant can receive up to $10,000 in damage compensation if the accused is found guilty, on top of any legal fees, even if they don’t have any connection with the woman who received the abortion. Depending on the verdict, the court could enforce the collection of the debt, which could include seizing property if the person found guilty doesn’t have sufficient available funds to pay.

This means that, as of today, every Texan has a financial incentive to track down almost any abortion, since at least two-thirds of all abortions occur after the sixth week.


Since it isn’t the government suing the patient, the law does not fall under the protections established by Roe v Wade, the Supreme Court decision which forbids the states from imposing restrictions on abortion at least until the fetus is viable and can survive out of the uterus.

The goal, as expressly stated by the proponent of the law, is to put anyone providing, or helping abortions after the sixth week under the threat of a deluge of lawsuits, making it financially unsustainable to maintain an abortion practice. Even if the providers won in court, and could demonstrate they didn’t perform the abortion after six weeks, the time and money required to sustain the suits could still be too much to bear.

The Supreme Court might still block the law as unconstitutional, but until it does, it is likely other conservative states will try and emulate the Texas model.

According to the latest data available, as of 2017 there were 35 abortion-providing facilities in Texas, of which 28 were clinics. As the law comes into effect, all of them—including Planned Parenthood—have stopped providing abortion services after the sixth week, and a majority of them might be forced to close.


Do you hate women's rights? Want to make a sweet $10k? Report a woman for getting an abortion! Profit from the denial of rights to others!


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Last edited by roronoa79 on 02 Sep 2021, 3:31 pm, edited 2 times in total.

King0fSpades
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02 Sep 2021, 3:25 pm

This is why I will never move to Tex-ass


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02 Sep 2021, 3:35 pm

King0fSpades wrote:
This is why I will never move to Tex-ass


Me too, but it's not only Texas, but also many areas of the US South.


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King0fSpades
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02 Sep 2021, 3:45 pm

AnonymousAnonymous wrote:
King0fSpades wrote:
This is why I will never move to Tex-ass


Me too, but it's not only Texas, but also many areas of the US South.


I live in the south. Everything about the south isnt all bad but the GOP is corrupt as hell.


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Dox47
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02 Sep 2021, 3:47 pm

The law was designed that way so as to not give anyone legal standing to sue, making it much harder to challenge in court. The way it's written, the state is not the one enforcing the law, so anyone wishing to file a lawsuit over it has to sue the individual who brought the action against them for the bounty, it's quite deviously ingenious in how it was structured.


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02 Sep 2021, 3:52 pm

I have a good friend who lives in Texas, and I've spent some time down there over the past five years. I love it, but that's entirely because of its natural beauty. Big Bend is a treasure!

That's how I judge any state or region, from a geographical perspective. Politics not so much.


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King0fSpades
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02 Sep 2021, 4:09 pm

VegetableMan wrote:
I have a good friend who lives in Texas, and I've spent some time down there over the past five years. I love it, but that's entirely because of its natural beauty. Big Bend is a treasure!

That's how I judge any state or region, from a geographical perspective. Politics not so much.


That's how I view my state of Georgia. The natural beauty here is wonderful and so is some of the food and the architect of the old houses in the downtown area where I live. Some people here are friendly but I also know many people who are racist and homophobic and the politics here and lack of real education in our schools drives me insane. Not to mention the obsession people here have over that stupid Civil War and the Confederate Flag...


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02 Sep 2021, 4:42 pm

Dox47 wrote:
The law was designed that way so as to not give anyone legal standing to sue, making it much harder to challenge in court. The way it's written, the state is not the one enforcing the law, so anyone wishing to file a lawsuit over it has to sue the individual who brought the action against them for the bounty, it's quite deviously ingenious in how it was structured.


Ingenious but also disastrous. This is a can of worms our country will live to regret opening. Absolute insanity IMHO, but also what happens when people are driven by a theological goal instead of pragmatism. The right to life political movement is so far off the rails from the more comprehensive goal "right to life" is supposed to have that I just can't deal with them anymore. I am personally pro-life, but there are compassionate ways to achieve that goal that do not involve putting any third parties into women's private lives. The annoying thing is that states like Texas just want nothing to do with the types of programs which are PROVEN to work because they conflict with their other political goals. I'm furious.


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02 Sep 2021, 5:11 pm

King0fSpades wrote:
VegetableMan wrote:
I have a good friend who lives in Texas, and I've spent some time down there over the past five years. I love it, but that's entirely because of its natural beauty. Big Bend is a treasure!

That's how I judge any state or region, from a geographical perspective. Politics not so much.


That's how I view my state of Georgia. The natural beauty here is wonderful and so is some of the food and the architect of the old houses in the downtown area where I live. Some people here are friendly but I also know many people who are racist and homophobic and the politics here and lack of real education in our schools drives me insane. Not to mention the obsession people here have over that stupid Civil War and the Confederate Flag...


I live in the corn belt in Illinois. It's not all that different than the South. I see as many Confederate flags flying around here than down your way. And we certainly have our fair share of bigots and racists.


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02 Sep 2021, 5:15 pm

Or you can move to San Francisco and make $300 per month for not shooting people.



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02 Sep 2021, 5:28 pm

Mr Reynholm wrote:
Or you can move to San Francisco and make $300 per month for not shooting people.


The San Francisco experiment is quite a lot more complicated than that and I would take San Francisco over neighbors spying on me in hopes of winning a civil settlement any day.

It really is getting difficult to believe this is all one country, isn't it?


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03 Sep 2021, 4:51 am

DW_a_mom wrote:
Absolute insanity IMHO, but also what happens when people are driven by a theological goal instead of pragmatism.


I'm not sure I'd really call it theological, it all seems to boil down to when you consider a fetus to have become a person with rights, which doesn't map perfectly with any sort of religious objection.


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03 Sep 2021, 5:34 am

Wouldn’t that lead to frauds?



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03 Sep 2021, 5:35 am

Dox47 wrote:
DW_a_mom wrote:
Absolute insanity IMHO, but also what happens when people are driven by a theological goal instead of pragmatism.


I'm not sure I'd really call it theological, it all seems to boil down to when you consider a fetus to have become a person with rights, which doesn't map perfectly with any sort of religious objection.


The issue has been pushed hard by religious groups for decades, which is why I see it as theological. But I just read a timeline from a political history professor I follow that shows abortion was actually chosen as a wedge issue back in 1972 (pre Roe v Wade) in hopes of getting more votes for Nixon, even though at the time both parties favored legal abortion. The law side has long been far more politically cynical than ideological. We can save more babies with compassionate measures than punitive ones; that is the unfortunate irony of all this. I do believe life begins at conception, but I have zero room for the political pro-life movement. And less for all the worms this Texas creative approach is letting out of the can.


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03 Sep 2021, 5:37 am

roronoa79 wrote:
The new Texas anti-abortion law includes a provision whereby those who successfully prosecute someone who has an abortion will have their legal fees covered and be paid $10,000 per case:

Texas’s new anti-abortion law turns citizens into bounty hunters

Quote:
Texas is at war against women’s reproductive rights, and turning its citizens into an army.

The state’s new anti-abortion law, which goes into effect today, bans all abortions—including in pregnancies resulting from rape or incest—as soon as a fetal heartbeat is detected. This occurs around six weeks after conception, or before many women would even know they are pregnant. The only exception to the rule is a medical emergency.

This is the most restrictive anti-abortion law in the country, and one of the most extreme in the world. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) had asked the Supreme Court an emergency ruling to block the law, but the court didn’t respond.

An army of anti-abortion vigilantes
Making the law even more extraordinary, the power of enacting the ban isn’t in the state’s hands, but in those of its citizens.

According to the law, private citizens can sue the physician who performed an abortion after the sixth week, as well as anyone who helped facilitate it, from counselors to anyone providing financial support for the procedure to someone who simply drove the woman to the clinic with the knowledge that she was getting an abortion.

The complainant can receive up to $10,000 in damage compensation if the accused is found guilty, on top of any legal fees, even if they don’t have any connection with the woman who received the abortion. Depending on the verdict, the court could enforce the collection of the debt, which could include seizing property if the person found guilty doesn’t have sufficient available funds to pay.

This means that, as of today, every Texan has a financial incentive to track down almost any abortion, since at least two-thirds of all abortions occur after the sixth week.


Since it isn’t the government suing the patient, the law does not fall under the protections established by Roe v Wade, the Supreme Court decision which forbids the states from imposing restrictions on abortion at least until the fetus is viable and can survive out of the uterus.

The goal, as expressly stated by the proponent of the law, is to put anyone providing, or helping abortions after the sixth week under the threat of a deluge of lawsuits, making it financially unsustainable to maintain an abortion practice. Even if the providers won in court, and could demonstrate they didn’t perform the abortion after six weeks, the time and money required to sustain the suits could still be too much to bear.

The Supreme Court might still block the law as unconstitutional, but until it does, it is likely other conservative states will try and emulate the Texas model.

According to the latest data available, as of 2017 there were 35 abortion-providing facilities in Texas, of which 28 were clinics. As the law comes into effect, all of them—including Planned Parenthood—have stopped providing abortion services after the sixth week, and a majority of them might be forced to close.


Do you hate women's rights? Want to make a sweet $10k? Report a woman for getting an abortion! Profit from the denial of rights to others!


What the right to kill someone because they cramp your style? Because they have Downs Syndrome? And trust me when they develop a test for autism we are so next.



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03 Sep 2021, 7:55 am

DW_a_mom wrote:
Mr Reynholm wrote:
Or you can move to San Francisco and make $300 per month for not shooting people.


The San Francisco experiment is quite a lot more complicated than that and I would take San Francisco over neighbors spying on me in hopes of winning a civil settlement any day.

It really is getting difficult to believe this is all one country, isn't it?

Paying criminals not to commit crimes means San Francisco has lost and the criminals are in charge.