Texas GOP to Stop Law Firms From Paying for Abortion Travel and Expenses

The Texas Flexibility Caucus, a legislative caucus in the Texas House of Representatives, sent a threatening letter to a regulation agency with places in Dallas and Houston that prepared to reimburse travel expenses for employees seeking an abortion.

In the letter, which was addressed to Sidley Austin LLP, the 11 reps of the caucus wrote that legislation will be launched to impose civil and criminal sanctions on law corporations that fork out for abortion or abortion travel.

“We are producing to advise you of the effects that you and your colleagues will experience for these steps,” it mentioned.

The proposed laws will prohibit any employer in the point out from paying out for elective abortions or reimbursing abortion-associated costs no matter of in which the abortion takes place. According to these lawmakers, personal citizens will be permitted to sue any individual who pays for an elective abortion done on a Texas resident. 

If handed, the legislation will grant The Condition Bar of Texas to disbar any law firm who has violated any abortion statutes. 

The Texas Flexibility Caucus explained Sidley had aided or abetted drug-induced abortions that violate the Texas Heartbeat Act, a law that bans abortions at about six weeks of pregnancy. According to the letter, litigation is by now underway to discover personnel who might have been associated.

“To the extent that Sidley is facilitating abortions executed in violation of article 4512.1, it is exposing alone and every single of its companions to felony legal prosecution and disbarment.”

In accordance to an electronic mail considered by Bloomberg Regulation, Sidley explained it would go over abortions and relevant vacation charges for staff in states in which restrictions are likely into outcome. 

On June 24, the Supreme Court docket overturned Roe v. Wade, a legal precedent from 1973 that manufactured abortion authorized across the US. 

Past calendar year, Condition Senate Monthly bill 8 took effect in Texas which outlawed abortion all-around six months of gestation, even in circumstances of rape and incest. The latest ruling will build criminal penalties for those who conduct or assist abortions at all levels of pregnancy. 

The letter was supported by the 11 conservative Texas lawmakers and concluded: “Carry out yourselves appropriately.”

Sidley Austin LLP and The Texas Liberty Caucus did not instantly answer to Insider’s request for remark.

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