Congress began debating a bill to ban so-called “partial birth” abortion procedures during the week before this cartoon appeared. According to CBS News at the time, then Senator Rick Santorum took to the Senate floor to give a graphic description of the procedure. Congress eventually passed the law and President Bush signed the legislation later that year. Although the US Supreme Court had upheld the procedure in 2000, the more conservative Court of 2007 upheld the ban. As Senator Barbara Boxer warned during the debate, “It’s an attempt to outlaw all abortions, to take away a woman’s right to choose … and criminalize abortions. And what follows from that? Women and doctors would be in jail.”
I write this nearly 20 years later. Last year the state of Texas banned abortion once a fetal heartbeat can be detected, which can occur within 6 weeks after conception and before many people would realize they are pregnant. No exceptions for rape or incest are made in the law, already creating problems for victims of rape and their doctors. While the pregnant person having the abortion would not be held liable, their doctor, provider and anyone who drove them to the clinic could be charged at least $10,000 in statutory damages. Enforcement of the law is essentially vigilante: it empowers any private citizen the right to sue anyone who “aids or abets” an abortion procedure after fetal heartbeat activity is detected. The US Supreme Court has ruled against enforcement-based challenges to the law, arguing that the Texas law does not authorize state agencies to enforce its requirements. The success of the Texas ban has inspired other right wing leaning states like Missouri and Idaho to copy the law, while other left-leaning states like Washington has blocked lawsuits against anyone getting or facilitating an abortion. The Missouri legislation would extend civil action to include those who have crossed state lines — which makes me think of the Fugitive Slave Act as an historical precedent.
