We as attorneys have a right to do our jobs, which includes giving our clients candid, truthful advice, in their best interest, free of coercion.
The most restrictive abortion ban in the country, Texas’s S.B. 8, has already had a devastating effect on women’s rights in the state. While the legal fight continues to stop this retrograde legislation, the impacts on women seeking reproductive health care have been obvious and most alarming. However, the devastation has not been limited to this vulnerable community.
As a women’s rights attorney actively fighting against S.B. 8, a potential long-term effect of this law is its aim to silence and restrict advocates like myself until we can no longer do the vital work of helping sexual abuse survivors. Because I have made it clear that I will help women access healthcare resources regardless of the law, numerous women have reached out to me in desperate need of an abortion. Their stories, circumstances and reasons varied, but they all shared a fear that Texas law meant they could be held criminally liable for even seeking information on abortion services. I would tell every woman in Texas what I have told the women I’ve spoken with: No Texas law, including S.B. 8, has that power. Individuals cannot be criminally prosecuted for seeking an abortion in Texas.
They all shared a fear that Texas law meant they could be held criminally liable for even seeking information on abortion services. No Texas law, including S.B. 8, has that power. Individuals cannot be criminally prosecuted for seeking an abortion in Texas.
Where S.B. 8’s power lies are in its lesser-known provisions that attempt to take the legs out from under the system that provides healthcare to women, undermine advocates’ work and cut off access to resources.
In addition to effectively banning abortions at six weeks of pregnancy—without exceptions for rape or incest—S.B. 8 includes language that empowers private citizens to enforce the law by giving them the right to sue anyone who “knowingly engages in conduct that aids or abets the performance or inducement of an abortion.”
Included in the group that can be sued for “aiding and abetting” are attorneys like myself who represent survivors of sexual assault. I have had clients who became pregnant as a result of sexual assault and when I am entrusted as their advocate, it is my job to advise and connect my clients with all of the resources available to them. Forcing survivors to face a lifelong, traumatic decision without the advice of their legal counsel or knowledge of available resources is simply wrong.
In addition to that being my responsibility as their attorney, it is my deeply held personal belief that no woman should be forced to face an unwanted pregnancy that was a result of a horrific, traumatic experience she had no say in.
We as attorneys have a right to do our jobs, which includes giving our clients candid, truthful advice, in their best interest, free of coercion. This attempt to tie the hands of attorneys and organizations that serve survivors is a gross overreach of the law that opens the door for attorneys to face civil action for giving advice to our clients and constitutes a breach of the attorney-client privilege that is critical to a healthy justice system.
That is why, since S.B. 8 was enacted, I have continued to advise my clients and other women who call our office to help them find resources, even though it means I may face civil liability. I am also a plaintiff in a lawsuit filed in Texas state court to try to block the law. I am aware that not everyone has the resources to pursue justice this way, but I am hopeful that we will prevail on behalf of all Texas women. Our lawsuit demanding survivors and other citizens of Texas have access to the reliable, complete legal advice to which they are entitled is proceeding through the courts.
The impact of this archaic and unconstitutional law has been enormous, but there is an opportunity now for it to be contained. The legal and advocacy communities must band together and demand that our work on behalf of survivors and women be protected regardless of where our state lands on individual access to abortion. Now that S.B. 8 has been enacted into law, we must do the vital work of preventing further infringement of the rights of survivors and their advocates.
Sign and share Ms.’s relaunched “We Have Had Abortions” petition—whether you yourself have had an abortion, or simply stand in solidarity with those who have—to let the Supreme Court, Congress and the White House know: We will not give up the right to safe, legal, accessible abortion.
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