Here's What Happens If Texas's Extreme Abortion Ban Goes Into Effect

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

68% : In 2013, Lubbock's old Planned Parenthood clinic had been forced to close after Republicans in the state legislature passed budget cuts and anti-abortion restrictions sharply curtailing clinics' ability to operate.
55% : When Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas opened its health center in Lubbock in 2020, it was the culmination of a years-long effort to reestablish an abortion clinic in west Texas, a region that had become, by some metrics, the country's most notable abortion desert.
51% : "We've had to inform patients in Lubbock that they need to travel outside of Texas or travel approximately 600 miles roundtrip to access an abortion," Sarah Wheat, the Chief External Affairs Officer at Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas, told me.
47% : The return of an abortion clinic to the region immediately drew the attention and ire of anti-abortion activists, including Mark Lee Dickson, the relatively young head of Right to Life of East Texas and the lead proponent of a campaign to get towns and cities in the state to adopt local ordinances banning abortion, turning them into what Dickson called "sanctuary cities for the unborn."
43% : At the heart of these ordinances was a provision that turned over enforcement of these bans from the state to private citizens, allowing Texas residents to sue for damages from both abortion providers and anyone who "aided and abetted" an abortion seeker.
40% : Planned Parenthood had sued the city, but in early June, a federal judge dismissed their complaint, citing lack of jurisdiction.

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