After Roe Fell: U.S. Abortion Laws by State

Illegal

Texas

Texas is enforcing its trigger ban, which prohibits abortion and includes civil and criminal penalties.

State Legal Details

Bans in Effect

  • Gestational Ban, 22-week LMP
  • Gestational Ban, 6-week LMP
  • Gestational Ban, Total Ban
  • Gestational Ban, Viability
  • Method Ban
  • Pre-Roe ban
  • Private Right of Action Ban
  • Telemedicine Ban
  • Trigger Ban

Restrictions in Effect

  • Biased Counseling Requirement
  • Mandatory Ultrasound Requirement
  • Parental Involvement, Parental Consent Requirement
  • TRAP Requirements: Facilities, Facility Requirements
  • TRAP requirements: Providers, Reporting Requirement
  • Waiting Period Requirement

Restrictions

Texas’s trigger ban, which criminalizes abortion, took effect on August 25, 2022,1 following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in the case Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.2 Because abortion is now a crime in Texas, other criminal laws, including solicitation, aiding, attempt, and conspiracy, could apply to abortion.3 In 2022, the Texas Supreme Court prohibited only criminal enforcement of the pre-Roe abortion ban and allowed for civil enforcement.4 In 2023,the state created limited affirmative defenses to civil claims brought against physicians for treating ectopic pregnancies or providing miscarriage management.5

Texas has not repealed other laws relating to abortion. Texas law retains gestational bans at six weeks before many people know that they are pregnant.6 The Supreme Court allowed this ban to take effect on September 1, 2021, and remain in effect.7 Texas law also prohibits abortion at twenty weeks post-fertilization and during the third trimester.8 It prohibits D&X and D&E procedures.9 Texas law continues to include requirements that pregnant people must undergo a mandatory twenty-four-hour waiting period, biased counseling, and an ultrasound and 10 prohibitions on public funding 11 and private insurance coverage.12 IT continues to require that a parent or legal guardian be notified prior to a minor’s abortion13 and consent to it or that14 a judge can approve a minor’s petition.15

In 2020, Texas Governor Greg Abbott exploited the COVID-19 pandemic in an attempt to ban abortion care, issuing an executive order16 that purported to suspend procedures deemed “not immediately medically necessary” by the state. This order contradicted major medical groups in the United States and around the world, which agree that abortion is essential and time sensitive health care.17 After a series of temporary restraining orders from the district court and appeals to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, Texas allowed abortion to continue under a new executive order.18

Texas retains targeted regulation of abortion providers (TRAP) laws related to facilities 19 and reporting. 20 Texas law continues to restrict the provision of abortion care to licensed physicians21 and restrict providers from using telemedicine for the provision of abortion care.22 Providers who violate Texas’s abortion restrictions may face civil and criminal penalties.23

State Protections

Texas law does not include express constitutional or statutory protections for abortion. The cities of Austin,24 Dallas,25 Denton,26 El Paso,27 and San Antonio28 passed ordinances preventing city funds from being used to investigate the provision or receipt of abortion care.

Post-Roe Prohibitions

In 2021, Texas passed a trigger ban29 and the state has a pre-Roe criminal ban that the Fifth Circuit held was repealed by implication. 30 On July 1, 2022, the Texas Supreme Court allowed for civil enforcement of the Pre-Roe.31 In 2022, abortion funds sued the Attorney General of Texas and local prosecutors after they threatened to prosecute people for assisting or facilitating abortion care outside of Texas.32 The federal district court held that the Texas trigger ban does not prohibit assistance with out-of-state care and enjoined the Attorney General and County Attorneys from enforcing the pre-Roe ban.33

Conclusion

Now that the Supreme Court has overturned Roe, Texas is enforcing its trigger ban, which prohibits abortion and includes civil and criminal penalties.

  1. Tex. Health & Safety Code u00a7u00a7u00a0170A.001-7 (stating that the ban will take effect thirty days after u201cthe issuance of a United States Supreme Court judgment in a decision overruling, wholly or partly, Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973), as modified by Planned Parenthood v. Casey, 505 U.S. 833 (1992), thereby allowing the states of the United States to prohibit abortionu201d which took place on July 28, 2022). ↩︎
  2. Dobbs v. Jackson Womenu2019s Health Org., 597 U.S (June 24, 2022), revu2019d Dobbs v. Jackson Womenu2019s Health Org., 945 F.3d 265, 274 (5th Cir. 2019). ↩︎
  3. Tex. Penal Code Ann. tit. 4, Ch. 15. ↩︎
  4. Whole Womanu2019s Health v. Paxton, No. 22-0527 (Tex. July 1, 2022) (order granting stay). ↩︎
  5. H.B. 3058, 88th Leg. Sess., Reg. Sess. (Te. 2023). ↩︎
  6. Tex. Health & Safety Code u00a7u00a7 171.204-12. ↩︎
  7. Whole Woman’s Health v. Jackson, 142 S. Ct. 522 (2021); see also United States v. Texas, 142 S. Ct. 14 (2021). ↩︎
  8. TEX. HEALTH & SAFETY CODE u00a7u00a7 171.044, 170.002(a). ↩︎
  9. Id. u00a7 171.102(a); 171.152(a); see also Whole Woman’s Health v. Paxton,10 F.4th 430 (5th Cir. 2021). ↩︎
  10. TEX. HEALTH & SAFETY CODE u00a7u00a7 171.011, 171.012. ↩︎
  11. TEX. ADMIN. CODE u00a7 354.1167. ↩︎
  12. TEX. INS. CODE u00a7u00a7 1218.003, 1218.004. ↩︎
  13. TEX. FAM. CODE u00a7 33.002 ↩︎
  14. Id. u00a7 33.0021; TEX. OCC. CODE u00a7 164.052(a)(19). ↩︎
  15. TEX. FAM. CODE u00a7 33.003. ↩︎
  16. Gov. Greg Abbott, Exec. Order No. GA-09, “Relating to hospital capacity during the COVID-19 disaster” (March 22, 2020). ↩︎
  17. See Joint Statement on Abortion Access During the COVID-19 Outbreak, Am. Coll. Obstetrics & Gynecology (Mar. 18, 2020); Disaster Risk Management for Health, Sexual and Reproductive Health, World Health Org. (May 5, 2011); Safe Abortion Care in the Minimum Initial Service Package (MISP) for Sexual and Reproductive Health in Humanitarian Settings, Inter-Agency Working Grp. (Dec. 19, 2019). ↩︎
  18. Gov. Greg Abbott, Exec. Order No. GA-15, “Relating to hospital capacity during the COVID-19 disaster” (April 17, 2020); Gov. Greg Abbott, Exec. Order No. GA-19, “Relating to hospital capacity during the COVID-19 disaster” (April 27, 2020). ↩︎
  19. TEX. HEALTH & SAFETY CODE u00a7 171.002; 25 TEX. ADMIN. CODE u00a7u00a7 139.32, 139.48. ↩︎
  20. TEX. HEALTH & SAFETY CODE u00a7 245.011(a); 25 TEX. ADMIN. CODE u00a7u00a7 139.4, 139.5. ↩︎
  21. TEX. HEALTH & SAFETY CODE u00a7 171.003. ↩︎
  22. Id.u00a7 171.063. ↩︎
  23. Id. u00a7 170A.004; id. u00a7 170A.005. ↩︎
  24. Austin, Tx., Resolution 20220721-002 (July 21, 2022), available at https://www.austintexas.gov/edims/document.cfm?id=389094 ↩︎
  25. Dallas, Tx., Resolution 22-1775 (Aug. 10, 2022), available at https://cityofdallas.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=F&ID=11113843&GUID=62D0C323-DEC9-4245-8E57-F0A8060BC613. ↩︎
  26. Denton, Tx., Resolution 22-1275 (Jun. 28, 2022), available at https://denton-tx.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=5708779&GUID=5149B007-7826-4325-A89C-F0584414A495 ↩︎
  27. El Paso, Tx. Resolution 23-188 (Jan. 31, 2023), available at https://elpasotexas.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=F&ID=11905826&GUID=9F4DB56C-4235-49F4-ADF9-C822470B3969. ↩︎
  28. San Antonio, Tx.. Resolution Concerning Abortion (Aug. 2, 2022), available at u00a0https://sanantonio.primegov.com/Portal/Meeting?meetingId=5473&templateName=HTML%20Agendau00a0 ↩︎
  29. TEX. HEALTHu00a0& SAFETY CODEu00a0u00a7u00a7u00a0170A.001-7.. ↩︎
  30. McCorvey v. Hill, 385 F.3d 846, 849 (5th Cir. 2004) (“The Texas statutes that criminalized abortion (former Penal Code Articles 1191, 1192, 1193, 1194 and 1196) and were at issue in [Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973),] have, at least, been repealed by implication.”). ↩︎
  31. Whole Womanu2019s Health, No. 22-0527 (Tex. July 1, 2022) (order granting stay). ↩︎
  32. Fund Texas Choice v. Paxton, 2022 WL 3645109 (W.D. Tex.) ↩︎
  33. Fund Texas Choice v. Paxton, 658 F. Supp. 3d 377, 415 (W.D. Tex. 2023). ↩︎