Several Texas Republicans despatched Sidley a letter on Thursday warning the corporation that paying for their employees’ abortion fees could expose them to criminal penalties.
“It has come to our consideration that Sidley Austin has made a decision to reimburse the travel expenditures of employees who leave Texas to murder their unborn kids,” the Texas Flexibility Caucus wrote to Sidley’s Dallas department office.
“It also appears that Sidley has been complicit in illegal abortions that were being performed in Texas in advance of and after the Supreme Court’s ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Group, No. 19-1392. We are writing to notify you of the outcomes that you and your colleagues will encounter for these actions.”
The Texas Freedom Caucus, a group of conservative members of the Texas Property, observes in the letter that Texas never repealed the abortion ban as soon as considered unconstitutional in Roe v. Wade. After Roe was overturned, the aged statutes regained impact, according to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
These statutes make it a criminal offense to endeavor, conduct, or furnish the usually means to procure an elective abortion.
Furthermore, a state regulation handed last yr that bans the abortion of unborn young children with a detectable heartbeat also forbids paying out for such abortions.
The caucus members claim Sidley may well have paid out for abortion products for Texas personnel in addition to covering vacation charges for out-of-state abortions, violating both equally the aged abortion ban and the Texas Heartbeat Act.
A partner from the Dallas department could not be arrived at to affirm that the company reimburses employees’ travel costs for abortions.
Sidley is the newest company to receive a letter from Independence Caucus associates warning of felony penalties for abortion support. Even ahead of Roe was overturned final thirty day period, point out Reps. Briscoe Cain (R-Deer Park), Matt Schaefer (R-Tyler), and other folks warned companies like Citibank that district lawyers could legally prosecute efforts to pay out for abortions without violating Roe.
Due to the fact district attorneys in Democratic urban parts have promised not to prosecute abortion crimes, Cain and other Flexibility Caucus members have also promised in these letters to file legislation that will allow district lawyers all over Texas to prosecute abortion crimes irrespective of in which they choose location.
Nevertheless, as evidenced by their letter to Sidney, the Freedom Caucus has expanded on this primary idea above time.
Their letter to Sidley proposes a new further risk: legislation that would call for the State Bar of Texas to disbar any attorney that has violated Texas abortion regulations.
On top of that, the caucus claims in the Sidley letter to file a monthly bill that would allow for private citizens to sue any one that pays for an elective abortion, an idea that Cain did not propose in his letter to Citibank. This would effectively utilize an current provision in the Texas Heartbeat Act to the complete being pregnant from conception, not just from the enhancement of a fetal heartbeat.
Because the legislature only convenes in odd-numbered years, Cain and other lawmakers will have to wait around months ahead of submitting bills.
In the meantime, their strategy could go on to evolve.
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