Idaho passed an anti-abortion bill on Monday that mirrors the Texas law prohibiting abortions after about six weeks, when fetal cardiac acitivity is detected.
The Republican-majority Idaho House passed the bill 51-14 and sent it to GOP Gov. Brad Little for a signature, The New York Times reported.
The law mirrors many aspects of a law enacted in Texas last year that prohibits abortions when fetal cardiac acitivity is first detected and would allow private citizens to enforce the measure by suing the woman, medical abortion service providers, and anyone else that aids in the abortion, for $10,000 plus legal fees.
The Idaho law would doublesthe amount that people can sue for, raising the claim to $20,000, according to the bill.
The new laws counter the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973 that made abortion legal nationwide for the first roughly 23 weeks, when a fetus is not considered ''viable'' outside the womb.
The Supreme Court is considering a Mississippi law that prohibits abortions at about 15 weeks, the Times reported.
Its decision, which could effectively overturn Roe and send states the legislative power to regulate abortion, is expected in June.
''This measure, which has saved thousands of unborn babies, remains fully in effect, and the pro-abortion plaintiffs' lawsuit against the state is essentially finished,'' Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton recently posted on Twitter when the Republican-majority state Supreme Court refused to overturn that state's new law.
The Times reports that other states are preparing to pass anti-abortion legislation should the high court reverse Roe v. Wade with laws that are either as restrictive or more restrictive than Texas' and Idaho's.
''The combination of the U.S. Supreme Court and Texas Supreme Court rulings on this unique law means that other states are going to see this as a way to insulate their own laws from judicial review,'' David S. Cohen, a law professor at Drexel University, told the Times.
Anti-abortion activists say they feel the movement has made gains in breaking down the ruling in Roe that abortion is a constitutional right.
''We've known that this lawsuit all along was just invalid and should have been dismissed, and now the fact that we're on that trajectory now is encouraging,'' Kimberlyn Schwartz, a spokeswoman for Texas Right to Life, told the Times, adding that the movement ''is not going to let our foot off the gas yet.''
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