Much of the news coverage about the special legislative session in Texas focuses on Republican efforts to further gerrymander the state at the behest of President Donald Trump. The new congressional map, which could hand Republicans five new seats, is part of a broader GOP plot to hang onto the majority come the midterm elections.
However, midcycle redistricting isn’t the only focus of this session. Lawmakers are also considering a massive attack on abortion access.
During the regular session, legislators introduce a bill to reduce the flow of abortion pills into Texas. However, it didn’t get enough support. The legislation was subsequently split into multiple bills that are now being considered in the special session. Texas lawmakers are also set to vote on a bill that would criminalize helping young people leave the state to get an abortion without parental consent.
The same people hell-bent on effectively stealing the House of Representatives are also trying to limit bodily autonomy. The special session bills on abortion are the latest reminder that restricting reproductive rights is deeply unpopular and requires undemocratic actions like voter suppression or attacking the constitutional amendment process.
Missourians experienced this firsthand, when the legislature passed a deceptively worded referendum asking voters to ban abortions in the state. This would effectively repeal Amendment 3, the 2024 constitutional amendment codifying the right to abortion in Missouri. From Texas to Missouri, nationwide, Republicans are taking extreme measures to rip away healthcare and abortion access.
Abortion is already banned in Texas in almost all cases, but conservatives want to effectively shut down providers that mail abortion pills to Texans. Clinicians are mostly sending abortion pills under the protections of so-called “shield laws,” which prevent states with abortion bans from enforcing criminal or civil penalties against doctors who prescribe across state lines. (Eight states have passed such laws, including California, Massachusetts, and New York.) In December 2024 alone, groups like Aid Access and the Massachusetts Medication Abortion Access Project (The Map) helped nearly 14,000 people in states with abortion restrictions access abortion pills.
Midcycle redistricting isn’t the only focus of this session. Lawmakers are also considering a massive attack on abortion access.
There are at least three bills targeting medication abortion, which generally refers to the protocol of mifepristone and misoprostol. SB 7 and HB 82 are near-identical proposals. Under the laws, anyone who prescribes, provides, manufactures or distributes abortion pills can be sued for at least $100,000 for each violation — an amount 10 times higher than the six-week bounty hunter ban that took effect in 2021. The bills also say that the Texas Attorney General, currently Ken Paxton, can file lawsuits on behalf of “unborn children.”
HB 80 includes the provisions above and would go even further by making it a criminal offense if someone “pays for or reimburses the costs associated with obtaining an elective abortion,” which directly targets abortion funds. The bill also says internet service providers must “block Internet access to information or material intended to assist or facilitate efforts to obtain an elective abortion” and lists the URLs of multiple websites, including Aid Access.
Additionally, lawmakers are considering HB 218, which would let people sue anyone who helps a teenager travel to another state for an abortion without their parents’ consent and establishes a civil fine of at least $100,000 per violation.
If these bills pass, it would make it even more difficult for people to access abortion pills and for young people to leave the state for care. Internet service providers might block access to crucial websites in fear of getting sued.
Texas has a history of trying to ram through abortion restrictions in a special session. In 2013, when state lawmakers failed to pass a combination 20-week abortion ban and clinic-shutdown law in the regular session, they called two special sessions to get it through. Sen. Wendy Davis famously filibustered the first one in her hot pink running shoes, but Gov. Rick Perry called another session.
The same could happen this time around. If this session ends without lawmakers passing anything, Abbott can just keep calling more — he forced four specials in 2023, and three in 2021. That possibility is buoying abortion opponents in the state. “We still think there is a way to get this bill passed,” John Seago, the head of Texas Right to Life recently told The 19th. “It may take longer than expected, but we have no reason to believe this will be the end of our bill on abortion pills.”
Abbott pledged to wield this power in an interview with NBC News earlier this month. “Democrats act like they’re not going to come back as long as [redistricting] is an issue,” he said. “That means they’re not going to come back until like 2027 or 2028, because I’m going to call special session after special session after special session with the same agenda items on there.”
Susan Rinkunas is an independent journalist covering abortion, reproductive health, and politics. She is a cofounder of Autonomy News, and a contributing writer at Jezebel. Her reporting has appeared in The Guardian, Slate, The New Republic, The Nation and more.
As a Democracy Docket contributor, Susan covers the intersection of abortion, bodily autonomy and democracy.