“What I can do is cease using Texas abortion laws as an instrument of persecution and intimidation, harassment and political showboating,” Johnson told The Texas Tribune. “I will not pursue the judicially absurd position that Texas law has extra territorial effect. I can honor other states’ shield laws.”
The decision removes a powerful enforcement tool. Under Paxton, who left the office to run for Senate, the attorney general’s office had sued out-of-state physicians who prescribed abortion pills to Texans, a practice abortion advocates say chilled Texans from obtaining the pills. Several blue states have passed shield laws protecting physicians who send abortion medication.
Texas has a four-year-old near-total abortion ban that makes the procedure virtually impossible to access within the state. The law includes a private-enforcement provision that allows anyone to sue providers who violate it.
Governor-elect Gina Hinojosa, a Democrat, cannot repeal the ban on her own. She told Politico in September that doing so is not a priority because it would require Republican legislative support. Instead, she has said she would work to end penalties for doctors who perform life-saving abortions. University of Houston political professor Brandon Rottinghaus said Hinojosa can influence how the law is implemented and how exceptions are interpreted. She could also appoint members to the Texas Medical Board as a block of terms expires in April; her appointees could revise guidance on when doctors can legally act to save a pregnant patient’s life.
Anti-abortion advocates are watching for further changes. John Seago, president of Texas Right to Life, said he is not worried about a standalone repeal bill but is concerned that Hinojosa could defund the Thriving Texas Families program, which sends more than $200 million to private contractors to, in part, counsel pregnant women away from abortion, among other services. He also noted that the “bounty hunter” law remains on the books and will not be revisited this session.
Freeborn said Avow Texas would keep trying to undo the ban despite the Senate’s Republican majority. “We’re going for the most unapologetic vision of abortion access, which is abortion access without exceptions,” said raven e. Freeborn, executive director of Avow Texas. She pointed out that it took decades for the GOP to outlaw abortion in Texas and said her organisation is prepared for a long fight.