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Texas Supreme Court Shuts Down Final Challenge to Abortion Law

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Multiple sources reported on the Texas Supreme Court’s ruling against the Center’s challenge to S.B. 8, the draconian Texas law that bans abortion after about six weeks of pregnancy and incentivizes individuals to enforce it. In December, the U.S. Supreme Court left a small opening for the Center’s case, Whole Woman’s Health v. Jackson, to continue by suing state medical licensing officials. Now, that opening has closed. Forbes quoted Center president and CEO Nancy Northup on the ruling, who stated, “With this ruling, the sliver of this case that we were left with is gone. The courts have allowed Texas to nullify a constitutional right. We will continue to do everything in our power to right this wrong.”

Both the Center’s Marc Hearron, senior counsel, and Elisabeth Smith, director of state policy and advocacy, echoed Northup. The Associated Press quoted Hearron saying, “There is nothing left, this case is effectively over with respect to our challenge to the abortion ban.” Smith commented to The Texas Signal, “Abortion rights activists have been warning of this nightmare for months: these bounty hunter laws could enable more and more states to ban abortion nearly entirely even while Roe v. Wade is still the law of the land.”

The Washington Post reported that Center senior staff attorney Molly Duane said the most promising path forward may be with the Center’s client, Alan Braid, a doctor in San Antonio, who provided an abortion in violation of the ban. 

Learn about the Center’s work challenging S.B. 8: 

Read the media coverage of Texas’s Supreme Court ruling: