A Texas appeals court has allowed three Texas Planned Parenthood affiliates to move forward with a lawsuit challenging the state’s “heartbeat” abortion law, rejecting an effort by Texas Right to Life to shut the case down.
The Third Court of Appeals on Friday said Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers have the right to sue over the Texas Heartbeat Act, the 2021 law that bans abortions after cardiac activity is detected and is enforced not by the state, but by private citizens through civil lawsuits.
Judges said the providers face a credible and ongoing threat of enforcement that has already chilled their work, even as they comply with the law. The court found the groups “established an imminent threat of injury traceable to the threatened conduct of Texas Right to Life,” pointing to its efforts to encourage private citizens to file lawsuits and submit tips about suspected violations.
“Stating ‘we won’t sue you as long as you obey the law’ is still a threat of litigation,” the Friday court filing read. Planned Parenthood didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Texas Right to Life could appeal to the Texas Supreme Court. The group didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday.
The lawsuit was filed shortly before the law took effect in September 2021. At the time, a judge granted a restraining order blocking Texas Right to Life from suing the clinics under the new statute. Providers argued the law’s private enforcement system exposed them and their supporters to unlimited lawsuits and effectively shut down reproductive care through fear of legal retaliation.
And in the years that followed, the state implemented a near-total abortion ban created by three overlapping laws, after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022. The ban allows abortions only when a pregnant patient’s life is at risk, with no exceptions for rape or incest. Performing an illegal abortion is a second-degree felony, punishable by up to 20 years in prison, and the state Attorney General’s office can seek civil penalties of at least $100,000 per violation.
The restrictive laws have fueled years of legal battles, including a case involving a private citizen’s attempt to investigate whether the Lilith Fund helped someone obtain an abortion and the fund’s countersuit asking a court to declare the Texas Heartbeat Act. The Texas Supreme Court heard arguments in that case Wednesday. The decision could shape how future challenges move forward, though it wouldn’t directly rule on the law’s constitutionality.
