CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Texas' Senate Bill 8, otherwise known as the Heartbeat Bill, went into effect in September, the bill banning abortions after six weeks of pregnancy and putting enforcement in the hands of private citizens. As of Thursday, there’s now an additional abortion law in effect, Senate Bill 4.
According to Travis Braidwood, Associate Professor of Political Science at Texas A&M University-Kingsville, the new bill is very different from the Heartbeat Bill.
"It restricts access to medically induced abortions to a seven-week time frame," Braidwood said. "And what it says is that anybody that administers the drugs after the seven-week time frame is now subject to a felony and can be sued by the State of Texas."
The law also bans the delivery of abortion inducing drugs through mail, meaning women can't order those drugs from out of state.
"The way that process typically works is you have two pills," Braidwood said. "One that's given that prevents the growth of the fetus, and then 24 to 48 hours later you have a second pill which induces basically a miscarriage."
Braidwood also mentions that these laws do not prohibit women from having an abortion but makes the window very narrow.
"For most people it's almost impossible with the SB 8 six-week ban, because most women don't know their pregnant before six weeks, or at least a lot of women don't. Then even after let's say that does get struck down, and you have this chemical induction abortion bill," Braidwood said.
Mississippi also has a law regarding abortion that the Supreme Court argues on Wednesday. Braidwood said each of these laws can get struck down, but the whole abortion access field is now incredibly complicated.
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