AUSTIN, TEXAS — The Republican-led Texas Senate has passed a controversial bill empowering private citizens to sue individuals or companies that mail abortion pills into the state, further tightening restrictions on reproductive healthcare.
The legislation, known as House Bill 7, expands Texas’s crackdown on abortion by extending civil liability to out-of-state providers, manufacturers, and facilitators who mail, transport, prescribe, or supply abortion drugs to Texans. The measure, approved last week by the House of Representatives, now heads to Governor Greg Abbott, who is expected to sign it into law.
Republican Senator Bryan Hughes defended the legislation, framing it as a fight against the pharmaceutical industry.
“We will not allow Big Pharma to pad its bottom line sending these poisonous pills into Texas,” Hughes said during debate. “This bill is about protecting the baby growing inside her mother’s womb. It’s about protecting moms who have been victimized and lied to.”
Under the bill, private individuals — even those unconnected to a case — would be allowed to sue alleged violators for at least $100,000 in damages. However, women who take abortion medication, including those prescribed after miscarriages, would not be held liable.
Democrats blasted the bill, accusing Republicans of turning citizens into enforcers of what they called draconian laws.
“HB 7 isn’t about protecting life — it’s about control,” the Texas State Democratic Caucus said in a statement. “It turns neighbors into informants and women into prisoners within their own state. By dangling six-figure rewards, it incentivizes harassment, fuels abuse and opens the door to nationwide enforcement of Texas’ cruel laws.”
The move marks the latest effort by Texas Republicans to restrict abortion access since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. Abortion is already banned in nearly all circumstances in Texas.
In February, a Texas court fined a New York doctor $100,000 for prescribing abortion pills remotely to a Texas patient. A month earlier, the same doctor was indicted in Louisiana for “criminal abortion.”
With Abbott’s signature, Texas would cement one of the nation’s toughest anti-abortion frameworks, giving private citizens sweeping legal powers to enforce the ban.
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