Abortion, Texas Republicans and the Slaughterhouse Cases: A Collision Ahead

In July, shortly after the Supreme Court’s opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that overruled Roe v. Wade, a group of conservative Texas legislators announced their intent to pass new statutes to impose criminal and civil penalties for assisting with abortions involving a Texas resident, “regardless of where the abortion occurs, and regardless of the law in the jurisdiction where the abortion occurs.”

Are these laws constitutional, and who will make that decision? The controlling legal principles are clear, but how they apply to these new laws is not. It also remains to be seen whether state or federal courts will be resolving constitutional challenges to such laws.