Greg Abbott signed the law that banned abortion in Texas after about six weeks of pregnancy in May 2021, and Johns Hopkins researchers estimated that Texas then had 216 more infant deaths in 2022 than expected without it. A month later he signed the trigger law that made nearly every abortion in Texas a felony once Roe v. Wade fell; ProPublica found that after it took effect in August 2022, the number of blood transfusions for early miscarriage in Texas emergency rooms rose 54%.
In 2025 Abbott signed a law that lets almost anyone sue a person who provides abortion pills in Texas for at least $100,000, and a law that bars Texas cities from paying for residents to travel for an abortion. As Texas attorney general in 2013 and 2014, he defended the clinic law under which the number of Texas abortion facilities fell by half.
Greg Abbott's Abortion Laws and His Defense of the 2013 Clinic Law
- Abbott Signed the 2021 Six-Week Ban, After Which Texas Infant Deaths Rose. On May 19, 2021, Greg Abbott signed Senate Bill 8, which made ending a pregnancy in Texas after fetal cardiac activity is detected, about six weeks, a civil offense, and left enforcement to private citizens rather than state officials; it took effect in September 2021. Johns Hopkins researchers reported in JAMA Pediatrics that Texas infant deaths rose to 2,240 in 2022 from 1,985 in 2021, a rise of nearly 13% while other states saw less than 2%, and estimated that the law led to 216 additional infant deaths that year. Days after the ban took effect, Josseli Barnica, 17 weeks pregnant and miscarrying, waited 40 hours at a Houston hospital; her husband told ProPublica that her providers said they could not act while the fetus still had a heartbeat. "She died days later of sepsis," ProPublica reported, and medical experts told it her death was preventable.
- Abbott Signed the Trigger Ban That Made Nearly Every Abortion in Texas a Felony. On June 16, 2021, Greg Abbott signed House Bill 1280, the trigger law that took effect after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and made performing an abortion in Texas a felony from August 2022, with few exceptions; doctors face up to 99 years in prison. After the felony ban, the number of blood transfusions given in Texas emergency rooms to women having an early miscarriage rose 54%, a ProPublica analysis of state hospital data found. Tierra Walker developed preeclampsia while pregnant in San Antonio and died of it; not one of the 90 doctors who treated her offered to end the pregnancy, even after she asked whether that might keep her safe, and ProPublica has found at least two more pregnant Texas women who died without the emergency care experts say they needed.
- Abbott Signed a 2025 Law Letting Almost Anyone Sue Over Abortion Pills for $100,000 or More. On September 17, 2025, Greg Abbott signed House Bill 7, which since December 2025 has barred anyone from providing abortion pills to or from a person in Texas and lets almost any person sue a provider for an injunction and at least $100,000, the Texas Tribune reported. A California doctor became the first known person sued under the law in February 2026, according to the Center for Reproductive Rights, and by October 2026 at least three suits had been filed under it, the Texas Tribune reported.
- Abbott Signed a 2025 Law Barring Texas Cities From Funding Abortion Travel. On June 20, 2025, Greg Abbott signed Senate Bill 33, which bars Texas local governments from funding or giving logistical support to groups that help people obtain an abortion. The law followed Attorney General Ken Paxton's suits against city travel funds, and San Antonio ended its $100,000 fund to help residents travel out of state for an abortion in early 2026 after his suit, ProPublica reported; the new law bars such funds in every Texas city.
- As Attorney General, Abbott Defended the 2013 Law Under Which Half of Texas's Abortion Clinics Closed. As Texas attorney general, Greg Abbott was the named defendant in Planned Parenthood v. Abbott, the 2013 challenge to House Bill 2, which required abortion doctors to hold hospital admitting privileges and clinics to meet surgical-center standards; at the end of August 2014 Abbott appealed a ruling that found parts of the law unconstitutional, the Austin Chronicle reported. As the admitting-privileges rule began to be enforced, the number of Texas facilities providing abortions fell by half, from about 40 to about 20, the federal district court found, and the number of Texas women of childbearing age who lived over 50 miles from a clinic doubled. In 2016 the Supreme Court ruled that both requirements unconstitutionally burdened women seeking an abortion.
What Greg Abbott's Abortion Bans Mean for Pregnant Texans
- Sepsis rose by more than half among Texas women losing a pregnancy in the second trimester. ProPublica found that the rate of sepsis, a life-threatening infection, shot up more than 50% for Texas women hospitalized after a second-trimester pregnancy loss once Texas banned abortion.
- Texas infant deaths from birth defects rose 23% in a year. Texas infant deaths from congenital anomalies climbed nearly 23% from 2021 to 2022, compared with a 3% decline elsewhere in the country, because women had to carry pregnancies to term even when the baby was not expected to survive, KUT reported from the Johns Hopkins study.
- Far more Texans want abortion laws eased than tightened. In a January 2025 University of Houston poll of 1,200 Texans, 49% wanted state lawmakers to make abortion easier to obtain and 13% wanted it made harder.
Frequently Asked Questions About Greg Abbott on Abortion and reproductive health
What is Greg Abbott's record on abortion and reproductive health under Trump?
Greg Abbott signed the 2021 six-week ban and the near-total ban that made abortion a felony in Texas from August 2022, and in 2025 he signed laws targeting abortion pills and city travel funds. Researchers have tied the six-week ban to a rise in Texas infant deaths, and ProPublica has documented rising sepsis and transfusion rates and the deaths of pregnant women who did not get timely care. As attorney general he defended the 2013 law under which half of the state's clinics closed.
What abortion laws has Greg Abbott signed?
Greg Abbott signed Senate Bill 8 on May 19, 2021 and House Bill 1280 on June 16, 2021, the two bans now in force in Texas. In 2025 he added Senate Bill 33 on June 20, which stops cities from funding abortion travel, and House Bill 7 on September 17, which lets private plaintiffs sue anyone who supplies abortion pills in Texas.
What has happened to pregnant women in Texas under the abortion bans Greg Abbott signed?
Under the bans Greg Abbott signed, ProPublica has reported the deaths of Josseli Barnica, who died of sepsis after waiting 40 hours during a miscarriage, and Tierra Walker, who died of preeclampsia after none of her doctors offered to end the pregnancy. Its analysis of hospital data found that blood transfusions for early miscarriage rose 54% after the felony ban took effect.
Can Texans be sued over abortion pills under Greg Abbott's law?
Yes. Greg Abbott's House Bill 7 lets almost any person sue someone who provides abortion pills to or from Texas, and a plaintiff with no connection to the case still collects $10,000 of the award, the Texas Tribune reported. In October 2026 a Texas woman used it to sue members of an anti-abortion group that had posted about ordering pills.
Last updated: 2026-10-26