Abortion is a medical procedure that ends a pregnancy. The legality of abortion has been litigated in the U.S. Supreme Court and other courts since the 1973 case of Roe v. Wade.
In 2022, in the case titled Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health, the Supreme Court reversed its decision in Roe v. Wade. The legality of abortion—including access to the procedure and any restrictions on it—is now determined on a state by state basis, with each state's abortion laws applying only within its borders.
In Texas, the legal landscape for abortion has been significantly affected by the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, which overturned Roe v. Wade and allowed states to set their own abortion laws. Following this decision, Texas has some of the most restrictive abortion laws in the United States. Under Texas law, Senate Bill 8, also known as the Texas Heartbeat Act, prohibits abortions once cardiac activity can be detected in the embryo, which is typically around six weeks of pregnancy, often before many women know they are pregnant. The law also allows private citizens to sue anyone who performs or aids and abets an abortion in violation of this restriction. Additionally, Texas has a 'trigger law' designed to ban nearly all abortions, which was set to take effect 30 days after the Supreme Court formally returned the authority to regulate abortion to the states. This law makes performing an abortion a felony in most cases, with exceptions to save the life of the pregnant woman or if the pregnancy resulted from rape or incest. As a result, access to abortion services in Texas is severely limited, and individuals seeking an abortion may need to travel to other states where the procedure is legally available.
