Which is how I visualize proposed laws, not yet passed.
Not really.
But this proposal fulfills a lot of implications:
An anti-abortion GOP lawmaker in Missouri, a state which passed one of the country’s strictest abortion laws back in 2019, says she has a solution to to the problem of people traveling out of state for abortions, The Washington Post reports.
“An unusual new provision, introduced by state Rep. Mary Elizabeth Coleman (R), would allow private citizens to sue anyone who helps a Missouri resident obtain an abortion out of state, using the novel legal strategy behind the restrictive law in Texas that since September has banned abortions in that state after six weeks of pregnancy,” reports the Post. “Coleman has attached the measure as an amendment to several abortion-related bills that have made it through committee and are waiting to be heard on the floor of the House of Representatives.” [RawStory]
If this passes and survives the inevitable SCOTUS review, a principle presumably established by the survival of the Texas anti-abortion law, which has not yet occurred, will protect it, and that principle will receive a confirmation.
Which means that when other states pass private justice laws that attack conservative shibboleths, the Court will have little choice but to uphold those laws as well, or be plastered with a very poor reputation.
If the Court’s conservative wing is smart, it’ll join the liberal wing in rejecting laws such as the Texas law, and this law if it passes, 9-0. Otherwise, the legacy of those in favor will be forever dirtied, even laughed at.
Addendum: And does it matter?
We’re seeing this strategy first in MO largely because a new, 18,000 sq ft clinic on the Missouri-Illinois border has limited the impact of Missouri’s strict antiabortion laws: Since that clinic opened in Oct 2019, 10,644 Missouri residents have received abortion care there. 6/
— Caroline Kitchener (@CAKitchener) March 8, 2022
Yes, I’d say it does.
