John,

“Today, our law became a blueprint for the rest of the country.”

These chilling words are from the president of one of Texas’s most extreme anti-abortion groups after the passage of Texas HB7, a dangerous bill that aims to further decimate access to abortion medication by offering bounties to ordinary people suing abortion providers. Texas Governor Greg Abbott is imminently expected to sign the bill into law.

What happens in one state never stays there, and anti-abortion radicals are saying the quiet part out loud now: they intend to export this legislation to states around the country.

A deliberate escalation of the cruel tactics first seen in Texas’s 2021 “bounty hunter” law, this bill threatens providers, pharmacists, and even manufacturers of abortion medication with lawsuits carrying damages of at least $100,000.

Its purpose is clear: to scare doctors out of prescribing abortion medication to out-of-state patients, enacting even more barriers to care.

So who benefits from passing these cruel, misogynistic laws that endanger doctors and patients?

As abortion reporter Jessica Valenti points out, this new legislation has a particularly disturbing detail. By requiring private citizens to donate a majority of their court winnings, the bill incentivizes anti-abortion groups to carry out sting operations, funneling the money they win right back to their organizations.

This bill started in Texas, but it won’t end there. We’ll soon see similar legislation cropping up in states across the country.

That’s why 80% of Vote Pro-Choice’s programs focus on electing pro-choice leaders to state legislatures, statewide positions like governor and attorney general, and local offices—because these leaders are the ones with the power to stop legislation like HB7 from being passed, signed into law, or enforced.

In the absence of federal abortion protections, reproductive freedom will be defended or dismantled state by state. With your support, we’ll keep fighting until our fundamental freedoms are restored everywhere.

With gratitude,

Team Vote Pro-Choice