HOUSTON – A Houston-area state legislator wants to block websites containing information on obtaining abortions or abortion pills.
Representative Steve Toth of Conroe filed House Bill 2690, which he calls the “Women and Child Safety Act” on Feb. 23.
The bill would require internet service providers to “make every reasonable and technologically feasible effort to block Internet access to information or material intended to assist or facilitate efforts to obtain an elective abortion or an abortion-inducing drug.”
The legislation specifically calls out six groups with websites that help people access abortion pills.
In a series of tweets, one of those targeted groups, Hey Jane, called the bill a “blatant attack of freedom of speech and commerce. HB 2690 is the first bill of its kind and reflects the extreme lengths that anti-abortion politicians will go to prevent even the knowledge of this safe effective abortion treatment.”
The bill would also let individuals sue people who maintain abortion access websites, make it illegal to fund someone to travel out of state for the purposes of obtaining an abortion and criminalizes abortion funds that help Texas get abortions in another state.
Seth Chandler, a professor with the University of Houston Law Center, says the bill could face legal challenges even before it would take effect, if passed, in September.
“This is a very serious bill. And for people who are pro-choice, they better bring their A-game to oppose it because it’s written in such a way as to take maximum advantage of recent Supreme Court decisions. Because this bill is more aggressive in the way it goes after information about abortion. It’s going to bring people who care about the First Amendment or just care about profits into the picture,” Chandler said.
KPRC 2 News reached out to Rep. Toth for comment but a staff member said he was not available for comment.