Texas Bill Would Let Citizens Sue Over Abortion Pill Use, Websites, and Payments
Proposed law allows sweeping lawsuits against manufacturers, websites, and payment processors that facilitate access to abortion pills, but exempts patients themselves.
A sweeping new Texas bill could open the door to lawsuits against nearly anyone involved in providing, promoting, or paying for abortion pills—except the people who take them.
Senate Bill 2880, titled the Women and Child Protection Act, was introduced in March and advanced out of the Senate State Affairs Committee in April on a near party-line vote. If enacted, it would allow private individuals to sue abortion pill manufacturers, distributors, website hosts, app developers, and even payment processors like PayPal or Stripe for facilitating access to abortion-inducing drugs. The bill will be filed on Tuesday.
The bill relies exclusively on civil enforcement through private lawsuits, rather than criminal prosecution. That means lawsuits could be filed by any private citizen, regardless of personal connection to the case. Successful plaintiffs would be entitled to at least $100,000 in damages per violation, as well as attorney’s fees and injunctive relief. Defendants could be held jointly and severally liable and would have limited legal defenses.
SB 2880 mirrors the strategy used in Texas’s earlier “Heartbeat Bill,” SB 8, which authorized lawsuits against those who assisted someone in obtaining an abortion after cardiac activity could be detected. In this latest iteration, the bill explicitly prohibits lawsuits against patients who use abortion pills. Still, it dramatically expands liability to those who provide logistical or financial support, including travel coordination, child care, or information about how to obtain the drugs.
Web developers, domain registrars, and those who create or maintain apps or websites offering abortion pill access could also be sued. Even those who process payments or donations related to the purchase or distribution of abortion medication could be targeted. While internet service providers, search engines, and cloud storage services are exempt from liability, most other platforms and services are not.
According to the bill’s authors, the legislation is a response to the continuing availability of abortion pills in Texas despite the state’s near-total ban on the procedure. A bill analysis from the Senate Research Center said the proposal would provide “more tools to target online trafficking of abortion drugs” and allow civil lawsuits up to six years after a pregnancy is ended with abortion pills.
If the specific manufacturer of a pill can’t be identified, the bill would permit market-share liability—dividing damages among all known manufacturers based on their share of the national market. Biological fathers would be allowed to sue over the death of a fetus, regardless of marital status.
The bill explicitly forbids class action lawsuits and bans most standard legal defenses. It applies even to conduct that occurs outside of Texas if the person who took the pills is a resident of Texas. It also voids any contract that tries to use another state’s laws and blocks any public officials from enforcing the law. However, they may submit amicus briefs in support of lawsuits brought by private individuals.
SB 2880 does not create new penalties for abortion patients or allow suits in cases where a pregnancy is ended because of a medical emergency. However, it would mark one of the most expansive attempts in the country to use civil litigation as a mechanism to restrict access to abortion medication.
If signed into law, it could set a precedent for further efforts to penalize those who support abortion access, even across state lines or through digital platforms.