The anti-abortion group behind the Texas law is already working with three other states on their own legislation.<\/b>
\nTexas\u2019 near-total abortion ban is likely to start a national trend after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the law, as Florida state lawmakers became the first in an expected string of Republican state legislators Thursday to signal they intend to pass their own anti-abortion legislation that copies Texas and lets private citizens, rather than the government, enforce the law. Despite being narrow and based more on procedural issues than the actual law itself, the Supreme Court\u2019s ruling that upheld SB 8 \u201cseem[s] to indicate that this is a good strategy,\u201d Seago told Forbes about the Texas law\u2019s stipulation that private citizens enforce the ban instead of the government. Seago noted that the law\u2019s \u201cspecific enforcement mechanism\u201d putting the onus on private citizens is what appeared to prompt the Supreme Court to give the bill the \u201cgreen light.\u201d \u201cThis is not a \u2018What happens in Texas stays in Texas\u2019 situation,\u201d Kristin Ford, NARAL Pro-Choice America\u2019s acting vice president of communications and research, told HuffPost before the Supreme Court\u2019s ruling came out. \u201cThere\u2019s also the very real threat that this has a domino effect in other states that are hellbent on ending legal abortion.\u201d In addition to South Carolina, the next states to move forward with Texas-style abortion legislation could be Arizona and Ohio, abortion rights groups that track state policy predicted to Politico, along with other states that have previously passed fetal heartbeat bills like Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas and North Dakota. Democratic leaders in the federal government have vowed to fight against state actions to restrict abortion in the wake of the Supreme Court\u2019s ruling. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said in a statement the chamber will take up the Women\u2019s Health Protection Act when it returns from its August recess, which would enshrine the right to an abortion into federal law. President Joe Biden also directed his administration Thursday to undertake a \u201cwhole-of-government effort\u201d to combat the Texas law. While it\u2019s not yet clear what specific steps could be taken, the president asked his Gender Policy Council and Office of White House Counsel to develop strategies specifically involving the Department of Justice and Department of Health and Human Services, and said he\u2019s interested in what \u201clegal tools\u201d can be used against SB 8. Texas\u2019 law comes as GOP state lawmakers have consistently passed legislation aimed at banning abortion in recent years, with the pro-abortion rights Guttmacher Institute reports 90 abortion restrictions had already been enacted nationwide in 2021 alone as of July 1. Similar abortion bans have always been struck down in court under the Supreme Court\u2019s precedent in Roe v. Wade holding abortion is legal, making Texas\u2019 law the most extreme restrictions on abortion in the U.S. to actually go into effect since the 1973 Roe decision. The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 on Wednesday against striking down SB 8 because they believed it was too soon to bring a legal challenge against the defendants that were named in the case, among other procedural issues, rather than issue a ruling on the constitutionality of the law itself. The justices said future legal challenges can still be brought against the Texas law, and Seago told Forbes he predicts the issue of whether the abortion ban is constitutional will play out in court when private citizens bring litigation to enforce the law. Whether Texas\u2019 novel approach to getting around the courts with its abortion ban will even be necessary soon. The Supreme Court will take up a challenge against Mississippi\u2019s 15-week abortion ban next term and consider whether abortions can be restricted even before the fetus is viable. That could result in the conservative-leaning court significantly weakening Roe v. Wade or overturning it entirely, potentially paving the way for states to impose abortion bans without more roundabout enforcement mechanisms like in SB 8. Supreme Court Refuses To Strike Down Texas Abortion Ban (Forbes) Florida Senate president says Legislature will consider Texas-style abortion ban, putting DeSantis in political vise (Orlando Sentinel) Could the Texas bounty-hunting abortion ban spread to other states? (Fortune) The Texas Abortion Ban Is A Dangerous Blueprint For Other Red State Lawmakers (HuffPost) Texas abortion ban leaves mixed signals about fate of Roe (Politico)<\/p>\n