Press Release
NARAL Pro-Choice America Responds to Biden Administration Action on Texas’ Abortion Ban
For Immediate Release: Thursday, September 9, 2021
Contact: [email protected]
Washington, DC — Today, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit to challenge Texas’ SB 8, the draconian ban on abortion before many people even know they are pregnant that went into effect on September 1. Lawmakers in at least nine states have made clear that they plan to use SB 8 as a blueprint to enact copycat legislation banning abortion in their states.
NARAL Pro-Choice America Acting President Adrienne Kimmell released the following statement in response:
“We are pleased to see the Biden administration taking action to fight for Texans’ reproductive freedom by filing a lawsuit to block SB 8—the harshest and most extreme ban on abortion in the country. Let’s be clear: Texas is the tip of the iceberg. This lawsuit sends a strong message to anti-choice lawmakers across the country who are racing to enact copycat versions of SB 8 in their own states. The threat to the future of safe, legal abortion is looming larger than ever, and safeguarding reproductive freedom requires bold and immediate action.”
Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to block Texas’ blatantly unconstitutional SB 8, a law banning abortion at approximately six weeks, before many people even know they are pregnant. The cruel law grants almost any person the power to sue someone for $10,000 or more for “aiding and abetting” a pregnant person seeking abortion care after about 6 weeks in pregnancy.
Texas’ SB 8 is part of a broader onslaught of attacks on abortion access in Texas and across the country. This draconian ban on abortion joins over 90 other restrictions on abortion access that have been enacted at the state level in 2021, making it the worst year for abortion rights since Roe was decided. Now, lawmakers in at least nine states have announced their intentions to use Texas’ SB 8 as a blueprint for copycat legislation attacking reproductive freedom in their own states.
In the midst of these attacks, the anti-choice, anti-freedom supermajority on the Supreme Court solidified by the confirmations of Trump’s justices agreed to take up Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, a challenge to Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban that directly threatens the future of Roe v. Wade. This case and the onslaught of attacks on reproductive freedom across the country underscore the urgent need for Congress to pass and President Biden to sign into law the Women’s Health Protection Act (WHPA) and protect the right to abortion throughout the United States.
Every day without congressional action means that more and more people are being denied their constitutional right to abortion—and this disproportionately affects women; Black, Indigenous, and People of Color; members of the LGBTQ+ community; and those with lower incomes.
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For over 50 years, NARAL Pro-Choice America has fought to protect and advance reproductive freedom at the federal and state levels—including access to abortion care, birth control, paid family leave, and protections from pregnancy discrimination—for every body. NARAL is powered by its more than 2.5 million members from every state and congressional district in the country, representing the 8 in 10 Americans who support safe, legal abortion.