Several Republicans including Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan and Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Texas) criticized Texas’ near-total ban on abortion Sunday because of its provision empowering private citizens to sue those who aid and abet abortions—potentially signaling the legal tactic could face resistance from within the GOP as more states plan to copy Texas’ law. Abortion is “a debate that we should have that’s open and not just opening people up to be sued for any bit part in that process,” Kinzinger said, adding that any future abortion laws should take the rape and incest exceptions into account and “should certainly not be set up so that it’s enforced by people using private right of action to sue somebody.”Though some are expressing reservations, many in the GOP have celebrated SB 8 and the U. S. Supreme Court declining to strike the law down. The Supreme Court’s decision “sav[ed] countless innocent lives,” Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) tweeted, while Rep. Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) called the ruling a “major win for human rights” and Rep. Michelle Fischbach (R-Minn.) said the decision was “incredibly encouraging.” “I am even prouder than usual to be a Texan today,” Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) said in a statement Wednesday after the law went into effect. SB 8 prohibits physicians from performing abortions after a “fetal heartbeat” is detected—a term the medical community has decried as factually misleading—which is typically around six weeks into a pregnancy. That’s before many people know they’re pregnant, experts say, and abortion advocacy groups project the law is expected to stop approximately 85% of abortions in the state, marking the most extreme abortion restrictions to go into effect in the U. S. since Roe v. Wade in 1973. Abortion providers in Texas told reporters Wednesday they’re remaining open but now stopped performing abortions after that milestone in compliance with the law, causing those in Texas seeking abortions to now travel potentially up to 20 times as far to obtain one, according to the pro-abortion rights Guttmacher Institute. The U. S. Supreme Court was asked to block the law from going into effect but ultimately declined to do so, ruling 5-4 late Wednesday night it was too soon to bring a lawsuit against the law. A state court in Texas did issue a more narrow ruling that temporarily blocks anti-abortion group Texas Right to Life, which helped draft SB 8, from enforcing SB 8 against Planned Parenthood and its staff. More states are expected to follow in Texas’ footsteps and attempt to pass legislation that mimics SB 8. Lawmakers in states including Florida, North Dakota, Mississippi, Arkansas, South Dakota and Indiana have signaled their intentions to try and pass similar bills, and John Seago, the legislative director of Texas Right to Life, told Forbes Thursday he was personally working with three states on their own legislation.
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