Supreme Court Justice Sotomayor condemns law’s « cash prizes » for citizens « prosecuting their neighbors’ medical procedures. »
The after six weeks of pregnancy includes an unusual measure designed to ensure the law is enforced: Residents of the state can sue clinics, doctors, nurses and even people who drive a woman to get the procedure, for at least $10,000. That financial incentive was singled out by Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor in her after the Supreme Court. In effect, Texas lawmakers have « deputized the state’s citizens as bounty hunters, offering them cash prizes for civilly prosecuting their neighbors’ medical procedures, » she wrote. Hotlines from anti-abortion groups have already sprung up. Texas Right to Life, an anti-abortion group in the state, created a website where people can leave information anonymously about « aiding or abetting a post-heartbeat abortion. » The law authorizes citizens to sue, and seek financial damages from, the support networks who help women get an abortion — such as families, friends, counselors, pastors, health care providers and more — rather than the women who are undergoing the procedure, experts say. « It’s designed to intimidate physicians and other clinic staff out of providing abortion care, » said Kirby Tyrrell, staff attorney at the Center for Reproductive Rights, in an email to CBS MoneyWatch. « If they continued to provide abortion care after six weeks into a pregnancy, they would face ruinous financial penalties, legal costs and court orders shutting their doors.
