Texas House passes law that would create ‘bounty hunter’ system to limit access to abortion medication

The Texas House on Thursday night approved legislation that would empower private citizens to sue anyone who makes or distributes abortion medication in Texas along with any out-of-state organizations or doctors who mail the drugs into the state.

The House’s 82-48 vote to approve House Bill 7 means it goes to the Texas Senate, which passed a similar proposal during the regular legislative session.

The Republican-controlled upper chamber is expected to approve the proposal, which seeks to force a legal showdown over shield laws enacted by states where abortion is legal. Those laws are intended to protect doctors who prescribe abortion medication and ship it to states such as Texas where bans are in place.

The bill incentivizes people to bring lawsuits by offering $100,000 or more in potential damages. However, women who take abortion pills to end a pregnancy couldn’t be sued.

Virtually all abortion care has been outlawed in the Lone Star State since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.

Women’s health advocates argue HB 7 also would create a “bounty hunting” scheme that encourages people to snitch on doctors and their pregnant neighbors.

“The way this bill is written, it would open Texas courtrooms to a $100,000 bounty-hunting entrapment scheme,” Texas Rep. Donna Howard, D-Austin, said during debate on the proposal, according to the Dallas Morning News. “I’m not a lawyer, but it doesn’t take a lawyer to see when the Constitution is being put through a paper shredder.”

Although the bill’s sponsors have repeatedly claimed they’re trying to “protect” women, medical experts argue that the most-frequently prescribed abortion drugs, a combination of mifepristone and misoprostol, can be safely self-administered at home without supervision from a medical professional.

Women’s health advocates argue HB 7 will create more risks for women by further curtailing access to one of the safest forms of abortion still available.

“HB 7 exports Texas’ extreme abortion ban far beyond state borders,” Blair Wallace, policy and advocacy strategist on reproductive freedom at the ACLU of Texas, said in the statement. “It will fuel fear among manufacturers and providers nationwide, while encouraging neighbors to police one another’s reproductive lives, further isolating pregnant Texans, and punishing the people who care for them. We believe in a Texas where people have the freedom to make decisions about our own bodies and futures.”

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This article appears in Aug 21 – Sep 2, 2025.