Press Release California
Press Release
NARAL Launches New Ad Sounding Alarm on Texas’ Vigilante Abortion Ban
For Immediate Release: Friday, August 27, 2021
Contact: [email protected]
Washington, DC—Today, NARAL Pro-Choice America released a new ad, The SB 8 Domino Effect, sounding the alarm on Texas’ extreme ban on abortion, SB 8, scheduled to go into effect on September 1. The draconian law would ban abortion as early as six weeks—before many people even know they’re pregnant. It would also grant almost any person the power to sue someone for “aiding and abetting” a pregnant person seeking abortion care and be paid $10,000 or more for their vigilantism. The new ad will run in both English and Spanish.
NARAL Pro-Choice America Acting President Adrienne Kimmell released the following statement:
“Anti-choice legislatures across the country are attacking reproductive freedom from all angles, but the cruelty of this Texas law is unprecedented. This law is slated to go into effect in less than a week and will have devastating consequences for millions of Texans, potentially causing a domino effect across the country. NARAL will continue to expose the anti-choice movement and its extreme agenda to rip away people’s fundamental freedoms.”
Texas already has some of the most severe restrictions on abortion in the United States, and now lawmakers are making accessing care incredibly difficult, if not impossible. The anti-choice movement has made their objective abundantly clear: This law is an attempt to saddle all health centers that provide abortion care with endless lawsuits in order to shutter clinics and intimidate pregnant people and anyone who tries to help them.
While multiple states have passed laws banning abortion at this early point in pregnancy, so far, every state’s attempt to ban abortion at 6 weeks has been struck down by federal courts. Texas’ SB 8 is different: Unlike bans in other states, which are enforced by state officials, SB 8 gives private citizens unprecedented authority to enforce its abortion ban. Last month, the Center for Reproductive Rights, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the Lawyering Project, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the ACLU of Texas, and others filed a federal lawsuit to block SB 8 from going into effect, but the law has not yet been enjoined.
SB 8 is one of more than 330 anti-choice bills introduced, advanced, or passed attacking abortion access during this year’s legislative session. In the midst of this onslaught of attempts to undermine reproductive freedom at the state level, the U.S. Supreme Court announced in May that it would hear Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, giving the anti-choice majority on the Supreme Court—cemented by Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell—the opportunity to dramatically roll back or entirely overturn the constitutional right to abortion.
###
For over 50 years, NARAL Pro-Choice America and its network of state affiliates and chapters have fought to protect and advance reproductive freedom—including access to abortion, contraception, and paid family leave—for every body. NARAL is powered by its more than 2.5 million members from every state and congressional district in the country, representing the 7 in 10 Americans who believe every person should have the freedom to make the best decision for themselves about if, when, and how to raise a family.