On Tuesday, Texas’ law which prevents abortions from occurring after cardiac activity is detectable — around six weeks after conception — went into effect. In a 5 to 4 ruling, the Supreme Court refused to block the law late Wednesday night.
Anti-abortion supporters hail the new law as a victory in protecting children’s lives. But pro-choice supporters contend that the law punishes women who at six weeks may not even be aware they’re pregnant, and may be forced to undergo dangerous procedures if they don’t have access to safe abortion clinics.
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‘As a Texas resident, I am shocked that I now live in a state where women’s reproductive laws are more regressive than most of the world’
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Unlike other state anti-abortion laws, Texas’ new law enables private citizens within or outside of Texas to file civil lawsuits against anyone who they believe performed or aided an illegal abortion — and receive at least $10,000 if they win their case.
President Joe Biden labeled the high court’s actions as “an unprecedented assault on a woman’s constitutional rights under Roe v. Wade.”
“Rather than use its supreme authority to ensure justice could be fairly sought, the highest Court of our land will allow millions of women in Texas in need of critical reproductive care to suffer while courts sift through procedural complexities,” he said.
He added in a statement published Wednesday that he’s directing his administration to “launch a whole-of-government effort to respond to this decision.”
Beyond the health dangers associated with receiving an unsafe abortion, the law has significant implications for the state’s economy, and women’s wallets.
Women will have to travel 496 miles round trip out of the state on average to get an abortion
Prior to Texas’ new abortion law women had access to an abortion clinic within 24 miles round trip of their home, according to research published by the Guttmacher Institute, a pro-choice research organization.
With the new law, women will have to travel 496 miles round trip, on average, to get an abortion out-of-state, assuming that most or all abortion clinics within Texas will close as a result of the law.
For someone earning the state’s minimum wage, $7.25 an hour, the trip to an out-of-state abortion clinic would cost them a day’s worth of pay, according to Guttmacher Institute’s research.
But the costs could be even higher, especially if overnight lodging is needed or if a woman has to make multiple trips back to a clinic.
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More than 82,000 women would take jobs in Texas if the state didn’t have any anti-abortion laws
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Match Group’s
MTCH,
CEO Shar Dubey told employees on Tuesday that she’s setting up a fund for Texas-based employees and their dependents that will “help cover the additional costs incurred” for seeking abortion-related care outside of Texas. The company currently has around 400 Texas-based employees, Match Group told MarketWatch.
In the memo to employees Dubey said that “as a Texas resident, I am shocked that I now live in a state where women’s reproductive laws are more regressive than most of the world,” she added, “including India,” where she immigrated from more than 25 years ago.
Texas employers could face more difficulty recruiting talent
Two-thirds of college-educated adults ages 18-64 who either work full-time or are looking for a new job said they likely wouldn’t accept a position located in Texas because of the abortion law.
That’s according to a survey of more than 1,800 people conducted by PerryUndem, a non-partisan polling group that received funding from Tara Health Foundation, an organization that funds women’s rights research.
Separate research published by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, a nonprofit think-tank, estimates that more than 82,000 women would take jobs in Texas if the state didn’t have any anti-abortion laws.
That amounts to a 2.15% increase in the state’s overall labor force.
In this statement on Thursday, President Biden said the Texas abortion law “unleashes unconstitutional chaos and empowers self-anointed enforcers to have devastating impacts. Complete strangers will now be empowered to inject themselves in the most private and personal health decisions faced by women.”
“This law is so extreme it does not even allow for exceptions in the case of rape or incest. And it not only empowers complete strangers to inject themselves into the most private of decisions made by a woman — it actually incentivizes them to do so with the prospect of $10,000 if they win their case,” he added.
This post was originally published on Market Watch
