Texas Senate Democrats: Flood Relief, Not Cruelty

Texans need help recovering from floods—not the harshest abortion restrictions in the nation

AUSTIN, TX—The Texas Senate Democratic Caucus released the following statement regarding Senate Bill 6, which attempts to criminalize women and threaten anyone who helps them obtain medication abortion:

“This special session should be about delivering flood relief to Texans in crisis, not attacking women and their families.

“Senate Bill 6 is not about protecting women’s health—it’s about control. It isolates women, intimidates families and hands new tools to abusers. It builds on the vigilante-style “bounty hunter” model, escalating it into a broad attack on personal freedom and the constitutional right to travel.

“Instead of making pregnancy safe, caring for women and strengthening health care, State leaders have chosen to spend more time adopting the harshest abortion restrictions in the nation. Texans deserve compassion and clarity, not cruelty and control—and Senate Democrats will always fight for the dignity and freedom of every Texan.”

Texas Senate Democrats On Passage Of Senate Bill 2880

Austin, TX—The Texas Senate Democratic Caucus released the following statement on passage of Senate Bill 2880:

Senate Bill 2880 is a shocking overreach of state power that weaponizes civil penalties to intimidate and punish those who support a Texas woman’s decision to seek reproductive care—including lawful care in other states. The real purpose of this bill is fear. Whether lawsuits succeed or not, the threat alone deters support, isolates pregnant women and attacks the very foundation of the judicial branch. The bill tells Texas women: you’re alone. It tells doctors, family members, clergy and out-of-state providers: help them and you’re next. It tells lawyers and judges: do your job at your peril.

Chillingly, the bill also provides new tools to abusive partners, allowing them to sue, weaponize private medical information and further control survivors.

The bill expands on the vigilante-style civil enforcement mechanism first seen in SB 8 (the “bounty hunter” law), which encourages private citizens to sue anyone who “aids or abets” an abortion. SB 2880 builds on that strategy with sweeping provisions aimed at medication abortion with an outrageous $100,000 penalty. It creates new civil liability for anyone who manufactures, mails, transports, delivers, prescribes or provides abortion-inducing drugs—even if that support happens entirely outside Texas.

In a bizarre turn, SB 2880 includes a provision to block judicial review, asserting that Texas courts lack jurisdiction to consider or invalidate any part of the bill. At the same time, it extends the $100,000 penalty to judges who dare to review the law and find it unconstitutional as well as attorneys who dare to represent clients in those proceedings.

It is also profoundly disturbing that SB 2880 purports to implicitly revive Texas’s pre-Roe abortion ban, treating it as enforceable despite court rulings that have enjoined it. By explicitly incorporating the 1925 law into the bill’s definition of “criminal abortion law,” SB 2880 intends to open the door to both civil and potentially criminal action under a long-superseded legal framework. This 1925 law does allow the prosecution of pregnant women and explicitly criminalizes “furnishing the means” of abortion—a vague clause that could be used to prosecute those who assist with abortion-related travel including husbands, daughters, sons and other family members.

The bill author has refused all requests to make this bill neutral on the subject of prior law, despite having willingly fixed it in SB 31. SB 2880 not only revives criminal exposure, it empowers the Attorney General to enforce it through civil litigation, dramatically expanding state authority to pursue and punish Texans for exercising a constitutionally protected right to travel.

In its current form, SB 2880 is a backdoor effort to fully reinstate the 1925 law. It is a vote to criminalize women, trap them within the borders of Texas and to threaten anyone who tries to help them—regardless of whether the abortion occurs legally in another state. This includes survivors of rape and incest and those facing lethal fetal diagnoses. It is harsher than any abortion law currently on the books and it represents a deliberate step backward into an era of cruelty, surveillance and state control over private medical decisions.

Texans deserve compassion and clarity, not intimidation. SB 2880 is unconstitutional, it harms women and families, and severely undermines the legal system on which we all rely.

Texas Senate Democrats On Passage Of Senate Bill 31

Austin, TX—The Texas Senate Democratic Caucus released the following statement on passage of Senate Bill 31, the Life of the Mother Act:

Today’s passage of Senate Bill 31 marks a critical step toward addressing Texas’ maternal health crisis. This bill provides long-overdue clarity for physicians and hospitals forced to navigate a vague and dangerous legal landscape since the state’s abortion ban took effect in 2022.

Pregnant women across Texas have been compelled to carry dangerous pregnancies to term, risking serious complications, long-term health impairment and even death. S.B. 31 aims to restore evidence-based medical decision-making by allowing doctors to act when they determine that continuing a pregnancy endangers a woman’s life or risks impairment to a major bodily function. Notably, codifying the Texas Supreme Court's recent decisions, the bill specifies language that the risk of death does not need to be imminent and clarifies that a doctor does not need to wait to treat a pregnant woman until she is physically suffering or harmed.

At our request, S.B. 31 also clarifies that it does not settle the question of whether the 1925 abortion law remains in effect, deferring that issue to the courts. It includes vital protections, reaffirming that women cannot be prosecuted for seeking abortion care and requires courts to follow long-standing judicial precedents dating back to 1880.

Doctors have asked for clarity. Patients have demanded protection. S.B. 31 delivers both. It puts life-saving decisions back in the hands of medical professionals—not politicians—and it removes the legal uncertainty that has threatened care across the state.

We recognize this bill does not go far enough. It does not address cases of rape, incest or lethal fetal diagnoses. It does not repeal the abortion ban. As Senate Democrats, we reaffirm our commitment to continuing the fight for full reproductive freedom in Texas. S.B. 31 is not the end—it’s the beginning of restoring dignity, clarity and life-saving care for Texas women and their families.