This anti-abortion law won’t go well for Greg Abbott

| 12:01 pm EDT September 6, 2021
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The conservative wing of the Supreme Court has allowed a radical Texas anti-abortion law to go into effect even while it is still under review, upending precedent and throwing womens’ health rights in the state into pandemonium literally overnight.

Make no mistake, this is a disaster for the Lone Star State. Not only has it become Ground Zero for the debate over a woman’s right to choose, it has unwittingly opened its legal system and exposed its fair citizens to a relentless horde of locusts.

Under the law, anybody can file a suit and demand restitution even if they don’t have “standing” in a traditional legal sense, without any connection to anyone involved in the incident, and without any damages suffered. And the defendant cannot recover court costs or legal fees, even if they win the case.

If that wasn’t a radical enough departure from legal standards, the law even allows a person to be sued without actually doing anything at all. Preemptive lawsuits can be filed against anyone who “intends” to provide, induce, or facilitate an abortion. This sounds like a job for the Thought Police.

There are very good reasons why laws aren’t structured this way when authored by sane adults. Taken together, these provisions ensure that there is virtually no downside to filing a flimsy or completely bogus lawsuit, and few, if any restrictions on who can be sued or how often. Those named in these suits will be forced to pay for their own defense, and will have no recourse when they prevail. It will often be cheaper to settle these nuisance cases than to go to court.

The only certain outcome will be a torrent of speculative lawsuits filed from all over the world, demanding payouts from anyone unfortunate enough to have ever set foot in the state of Texas. Abbott won’t be able to repeal this one quickly enough.