VIRTUAL – Ahead of Texas’ House Bill 7 taking effect this Thursday, December 4, abortion providers and physicians in Texas, Wisconsin, Maryland and Ohio held a press call to sound the alarm on the harmful impact this law will have on patient access to abortion care.
House Bill 7 – passed by a Republican majority in the Texas Legislature – is the first law in the country of its kind and a new form of a “backdoor” abortion ban. The law targets out-of-state physicians who use telehealth to prescribe or mail abortion medication to Texas patients, directly undermining states with shield laws designed to protect providers and ensure access to care. Under HB 7, any private citizen can now file a civil suit – with a minimum reward of $100,000 – against anyone who prescribes, mails, or distributes abortion pills to a Texan.
During the call, abortion providers and members of the Committee to Protect Health Care’s Reproductive Freedom Task Force broke down how this new law adds to the fear and uncertainty OB/GYNs and abortion providers already face simply for delivering evidence-based, medically necessary care to their patients.
“Texas politicians are allowing strangers to interfere in other people’s personal medical decisions — decisions that should be between patients and clinicians,” said Dr. Bhavik Kumar, a TX-based family physician and abortion provider, Co-Chair of the Committee to Protect Health Care’s Reproductive Freedom Taskforce. “Texas already has multiple strict abortion bans in place. This law is just another way for politicians to try to control women’s bodies by making them afraid to order abortion medication and making clinicians afraid of prescribing them — even if they are legally allowed to do so in their own states. When politicians go after clinicians for prescribing abortion medication across state lines, they are attacking the doctor-patient relationship. When politicians allow any individual in Texas to go after doctors in other states for providing health care, more people will die.”
Dr. Ealena Callender, a MD-based OB/GYN, said, “I live in Maryland, which has a shield law. Shield laws protect doctors and health care providers in their states from hostile investigations, lawsuits, and extraditions from other states related to providing reproductive health care like mifepristone. Twenty-two states and Washington, D.C., have shield laws or executive protections for reproductive health care, affirming their rights as states and their rights under Dobbs. But the Texas law going into effect this week is trying to change all that.”
Dr. Callender also spoke about how attacks on abortion are coming from all sides, saying, “Right now, RFK’s FDA is re-reviewing mifepristone, even though it has been approved for 25 years and has consistently been shown to be safe and effective. At the same time, the court case against mifepristone’s approval that the U.S. Supreme Court dismissed in 2024 is making its way back through the court system due to anti-abortion GOP state attorneys general. This government interference – from states, from the federal government, and from the courts – needs to stop.”
Dr. Anita Somani, a State Representative in OH-8 and OH-based OB/GYN, said, “I am both a physician and politician, but I can say without reservation that politicians should NOT be dictating women’s medical care. My fellow Ohioans agree. In 2023, Ohio voters overwhelmingly passed Issue 1 to restore residents’ freedom to make their own personal medical decisions. Yet politicians keep trying to interfere. Texas’ HB 7 is yet another attack by politicians on patients’ health and personal freedom. It’s yet another attack on doctors’ ability to simply do their jobs. It could allow people in Texas to reach into Ohio doctors’ offices to say what they can and can’t prescribe — even though the voters here made it clear that they should be able to prescribe abortion medication.”
Dr. Kristin Lyerly, a WI-based OB/GYN and Board Chair of the Committee to Protect Health Care, said, “We’re facing a slippery slope. If politicians can successfully stop abortion medication today, what will they go after tomorrow? Birth control? We’re already seeing it. What’s next? Allowing politicians to override doctors sets a dangerous medical precedent — one in which your health care decisions aren’t made based on medicine but on politicians’ fancies. Americans value freedom to make personal health choices with qualified professionals without government interference. Restrictions on mifepristone undermine this basic American freedom. We need to get back to trusting doctors, not politicians, with medical decisions.”
About the Committee to Protect Health Care
The Committee to Protect Health Care is a national mobilization of doctors, health care professionals, and advocates who are building a pro-patient health care majority in Congress and in states so that we can live in an America where everyone has the health care they need to thrive. To learn more: www.committeetoprotect.org
