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 for providers.

State Legal Details

Bans in Effect

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

Restrictions in Effect

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

State Protections

Texas law does not include express constitutional or statutory protections for abortion. The cities of Austin,1 Dallas,2 Denton,3 El Paso,4 and San Antonio5 passed ordinances preventing city funds from being used to investigate the provision or receipt of abortion care.

Restrictions

Texas’s trigger ban, which criminalizes abortion, took effect on August 25, 2022,6 following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in the case Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.7 The trigger ban’s only exception is for situations in which the life or health of the patient is at risk.8In 2025, the state clarified this exception by defining “life-threatening” condition and specifying that the exception did not have to be “imminent” to apply.9 Because abortion is now a crime in Texas, other criminal laws, including solicitation, aiding, attempt, and conspiracy, could apply to abortion.10 In 2023, the state created limited affirmative defenses to civil claims brought against physicians and pharmacists and prohibited professional licensing boards from disciplining physicians for treating ectopic pregnancies or providing miscarriage management;11 however, the affirmative defenses were repealed in 2025.12

In 2022, several 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.13 The federal district court held that the Texas trigger ban does not prohibit assistance with out-of-state care and preliminarily enjoined the Attorney General and several County Attorneys from enforcing the pre-Roe ban against out-of-state conduct.14

Texas has not repealed other laws relating to abortion. Texas law retains a gestational bans at six weeks,15 which the Supreme Court allowed to take effect on September 1, 2021.16 Texas law also includes prohibits abortion at twenty weeks post-fertilization17 and during the third trimester.18 It prohibits D&X and D&E procedures.19

Texas law continues to include requirements that pregnant people must undergo a mandatory twenty-four-hour waiting period, biased counseling, and an ultrasound. 20 Texas law also includes prohibitions on public funding 21 and private insurance coverage.22 It continues to require that a parent or legal guardian be notified at least 48 hours prior to a minor’s abortion23 and consent to it24 or that a judge can approve a minor’s petition.25

Texas retains targeted regulation of abortion providers (TRAP) laws related to facilities 26 and reporting. 27 Texas law continues to restrict the provision of abortion care to licensed physicians28 and restricts providers from using telemedicine for the provision of abortion care.29 Providers who violate Texas’s abortion restrictions may face civil and criminal penalties.30

In 2025, Texas expanded the state’s prohibitions on medication abortion by prohibiting the manufacture, distribution, mailing, or provision of medication abortion into the state.31 This law authorizes private civil enforcement actions against certain individuals or entities.32

Historical Restrictions

In 2004, Texas’s pre-Roe criminal ban was held to be repealed by implication by the Fifth Circuit.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 for providers.

  1. Austin, Tx., Resolution 20220721-002 (July 21, 2022), available at https://www.austintexas.gov/edims/document.cfm?id=389094. ↩︎
  2. 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. ↩︎
  3. Denton, Tx., Resolution 22-1275 (June 28, 2022), available at https://denton-tx.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=5708779&GUID=5149B007-7826-4325-A89C-F0584414A495. ↩︎
  4. 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. ↩︎
  5. San Antonio, Tx., Resolution Concerning Abortion (Aug. 2, 2022), available at https://sanantonio.primegov.com/Portal/Meeting?meetingId=5473&templateName=HTML%20Agenda. ↩︎
  6. Tex. Health & Safety Code §§ 170A.001–.007; see also 2021 Tex. Sess. Law Serv. sec. 3 (H.B. 1280) (stating that the ban will take effect thirty days after “the 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 abortion” which took place on June 24, 2022). ↩︎
  7. Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Org., 597 U.S. 215 (June 24, 2022), rev’d Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Org., 945 F.3d 265, 274 (5th Cir. 2019). ↩︎
  8. Tex. Health & Safety Code § 170A.002. ↩︎
  9. Tex. Health & Safety Code § 170A.002(c-1), (c-2). ↩︎
  10. Tex. Penal Code tit. 4, ch. 15. ↩︎
  11. H.B. 3058, 88th Leg. Sess., Reg. Sess. (Tex. 2023), previously codified at Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 74.552. ↩︎
  12. S.B. 31, 89th Leg. Sess., Reg. Sess. (Tex. 2025) (repealing Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 74.552). ↩︎
  13. Compl., Fund Texas Choice v. Paxton, 658 F. Supp. 3d 377 (W.D. Tex. 2023). ↩︎
  14. Fund Texas Choice v. Paxton, 658 F. Supp. 3d 377, 415 (W.D. Tex. 2023). After the injunction, plaintiffs amended their complaint to add prosecutors from other counties. Second Amend. Compl., Fund Texas Choice v. Deski, 790 F. Supp. 3d 534 (W.D. Tex. 2025). These prosecutor defendants filed motions for summary judgment, arguing that plaintiffs’ claims were barred by the Eleventh Amendment and sovereign immunity. See Fund Texas Choice v. Deski, 790 F. Supp. 3d 534, 543 (W.D. Tex. 2025).  In 2025, the district court judge granted defendants’ motions finding that these prosecutors were entitled to sovereign immunity. Fund Texas Choice v. Deski, 790 F. Supp. 3d 534 (W.D. Tex. 2025). The case is now on appeal to the Fifth Circuit. Fund Texas Choice v. Deski, No. 25-50563 (5th Cir. 2025). ↩︎
  15. Tex. Health & Safety Code §§ 171.204–.212. ↩︎
  16. Whole Woman’s Health v. Jackson, 142 S. Ct. 522 (2021); see also United States v. Texas, 142 S. Ct. 14 (2021). ↩︎
  17. Tex. Health & Safety Code § 171.044. ↩︎
  18. Tex. Health & Safety Code § 170.002(a). ↩︎
  19. Tex. Health & Safety Code  §§ 171.102(a), 171.152(a); see also Whole Woman’s Health v. Paxton, 10 F.4th 430 (5th Cir. 2021) (vacating district court’s permanent injunction of Texas law prohibiting a particular type of D&E abortion method). ↩︎
  20. Tex. Health & Safety Code §§ 171.011–.012. ↩︎
  21. Tex. Admin. Code § 354.1167; Tex. Gov. Code § 2273.001 et seq.; Tex. Health & Safety Code § 54.001 et seq. ↩︎
  22. Tex. Ins. Code §§ 1218.003–.004. ↩︎
  23. Tex. Fam. Code § 33.002. ↩︎
  24. Tex. Fam. Code § 33.0021; Tex. Occ. Code § 164.052(a)(19). ↩︎
  25. Tex. Fam. Code § 33.003.. ↩︎
  26. Tex. Health & Safety Code § 245.001 et seq.; 25 Tex. Admin. Code §§ 139.32, 504.48. ↩︎
  27. Tex. Health & Safety Code § 245.011(a); 25 Tex. Admin. Code §§ 139.4, 139.5. ↩︎
  28. Tex. Health & Safety Code § 171.003. ↩︎
  29. Tex. Health & Safety Code § 171.063. ↩︎
  30. Tex. Health & Safety Code §§ 170A.004–.005. ↩︎
  31. Tex. Health & Safety Code § 171A.051. ↩︎
  32. Tex. Health & Safety Code § 171A.101. ↩︎
  33. 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.”). ↩︎