Abortions in Texas reportedly fell 60% in the first month after the implementation of the state’s anti-abortion law, according to new data from the Texas Health and Human Services Commission.
“The nearly 2,200 abortions reported by Texas providers in September came after a new law took effect that bans the procedure once the cardiac activity is detected, usually around six weeks of pregnancy and without exceptions in cases of rape or incest,” The New York Post reported. “In August, there had been more than 5,400 abortions statewide. State health officials said more data will be released on a monthly basis.”
In response to the news, Planned Parenthood released a statement calling the numbers “the very beginning of the devastating impact” of the law.
The Texas law, which bans abortions when cardiac activity can be detected from the baby, conflicts with “the Supreme Court’s landmark decisions in Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which established a constitutional right to have an abortion before the point of fetal viability, generally understood to occur around 24 weeks of pregnancy,” SCOTUSblog explained. However, the Texas law was written in a way that made it able to evade precedents.
“In the novel legal strategy, the state Legislature designed the law to prevent government officials from directly enforcing it. The move was meant to make it much more difficult to bring a pre-enforcement challenge because there are not the usual government officials to hold accountable in court,” CNN reported. “Instead, the law allows private citizens — anywhere in the country — to bring civil suits against anyone who assists a pregnant person seeking an abortion in violation of the ban.”