Texas Abortion Law

 I live in Texas, and in its last session our native criminal class outdid itself in passing the abominable abortion law that went into effect this month. The legislators did not make abortion a crime subject to prosecution by officials, probably because they knew courts would not allow a law of that sort to be enforced. Instead they came up with the gimmick of making performing an abortion or helping a woman to get an abortion after about the sixth week of pregnancy a civil violation that anyone in the state can sue over and collect up to ten thousand dollars plus a cut for his lawyers. The persons doing the suing do not have to claim to have suffered any harm or even to have any connection at all to the woman or those they are suing. The scheme was that as long as it lasted this would be as effective as an ordinary prohibition but would be harder and take longer to stop in courts, because  there would have to be civil suits under it to review before anything definite could happen.  

People should oppose the law and its gimmick irrespective of their opinions on abortion. If the gimmick is permitted as a tactic, a legislature could at least temporarily get rid of almost anything  its members disapproved of  that would be impossible to ban directly  (rude political speech, private purchase of firearms, homosexual marriage, or home schooling, for   example)   by making anyone connected with the disliked activity subject to an unlimited number of lawsuits.

The five members of the supreme court who refused to block this thing for what they said were purely technical and procedural reasons should consider its substance, see the gimmick as the attack on the general constitutional protection of people’s rights that it is, and find a way to stop its present and possible future use  as soon as possible. Liberal, libertarian, and conservative anti-abortion people who have supported this law should think twice. Libertarians among them should be ashamed.