Thread by @jaywillis

The way Texas's anti-choice law actually works in practice is so diabolical and dystopian that it almost sounds fake. A Rube Goldberg machine of state-sanctioned misogyny. A quick thread on what the Supreme Court allowed to take effect last night: capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/87R/bi…

Under SB8, any random person can sue anyone who "aids and abets" abortion. This includes *paying for* abortion, and *using insurance*. So, if you give a friend money, or file an insurance claim, or are an insurance company who pays a claim, you might be a target.

If an anti-choice vigilante wins, they get to collect a statutory $10,000 bounty AND their attorney's fees. If a doctor or clinic or anyone accused of "aiding or abetting" somehow wins, they get...nothing, and DON'T get attorney's fees reimbursed. Their legal costs are their own.

SB8 also allows lawsuits against people who INTEND to perform abortion or "aid or abet" abortion. This is an open invitation to anti-choice activists to file lawsuits against everyone they don't like and try to drown them in frivolous litigation.

The law also applies to *each individual abortion* performed. Doctors and clinics who regularly provide abortion care are now staring down the possibility of paying $10,000 plus costs and fees every time they do their jobs.

This part is insane: People can bring suits up to FOUR YEARS later. And if a court decision briefly protects the right to abortion and then gets overruled, defendants can't rely on that, EVEN IF the decision was good law at the time. Perpetual threat of devastating liability.

Where do these get filed? One option for vigilante claimants is the county where they live, regardless of where the alleged conduct took place. The law PROHIBITS transfers without the consent of all parties. If you live in El Paso and get sued in, like, Galveston, tough shit.

SB8 also casually makes it so that anyone who tries to prevent Texas from enforcing any current or future anti-choice laws is required to pay the other side's attorney's fees if they lose. Again, the goal is to make defending abortion rights prohibitively expensive in perpetuity.

And just to be safe, the law specifies that any court ruling that any part of SB8 is unconstitutional is temporary and can be overruled as soon as a friendlier court comes along. Utterly deranged, but also, what the conservative legal movement has been working for for decades.

Texas Republicans DID carve out an exception: If a would-be claimant is the same person who impregnated a woman via rape or incest, they CAN'T sue to stop the survivor from having an abortion. (They can still bring vigilante suits over other abortions, though, don't worry.)

There are little things, too: Texas already requires women seeking abortion to undergo a sonogram and hear an "explanation" of the sonogram images, with only a few exceptions. SB8 changes references to the "fetus" on the paperwork the patient must sign to "unborn child."