The Ocasio-Cortez ruling on the Texas law
“’The far left is taking over’ WHERE. In Texas, Republicans have passed a law allowing rapists to sue their victims for having abortions. Can anyone name such an extreme “far left” policy implemented somewhere? We can’t even get our group to import cheaper RX’s from Canada. foh.”
— Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (DN.Y.), in a tweetApril 29
This tweet, like much of Ocasio-Cortez’s social media, quickly went viral, garnering around 35,000 retweets and over 200,000 likes. It’s primarily a complaint about how she thinks the right is more extreme than the left, but at its core, the tweet makes a claim that is false: that a Texas law passed in 2021 allows rapists to sue victims for abortions.
We checked out the law, which has a near-total ban on abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy and empowers citizens to sue abortion providers and people who assist with abortions. That He says: “Notwithstanding any other law, a person who has impregnated the abortion patient through an act of rape, sexual assault, incest, or any other act prohibited by Sections 22.011, 22.021, or 25.02, may not bring an action civil under this section. Penal Code.” Those sections deal with sexual assault, aggravated sexual assault (such as rape) and prohibited sexual conduct (such as incest).
In addition to that, the law it does not allow that patients who abort are sued. Instead, lawsuits can be brought against anyone who “performs or induces an abortion” or who “knowingly engages in conduct that aids or abets the performance or inducement of an abortion.”
the texas Tribune, in a helpful annotation to the lawHe said that “the patient who receives such an abortion cannot be sued under the law, but everyone who helps that patient can be, including, for example, her doctor, driver, or family member who helps pay for the procedure.”
As for rapists, “if the patient was raped, sexually assaulted, or a victim of incest, the perpetrator cannot sue for the abortion performed,” the Tribune said. “However, the law does not prevent other people from suing for that particular abortion, even if the pregnancy occurred as a result of rape, sexual assault, or incest.”
Ocasio-Cortez should delete this tweet. It’s embarrassingly wrong.
The NRSC’s False Claim About Physicians
“Joe Biden and the Democrats have and will continue to spread lies about the Republican position on abortion and women’s health care…. Republicans do NOT want to send doctors and women to jail.”
— Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), memo on how to talk about abortionMay 3
Scott, chairman of the Republican National Senatorial Committee, issued a memo with proposed talking points on abortion after the leak of a draft Supreme Court opinion that would overturn Roe vs. Wadewhich in 1973 legalized abortion throughout the United States.
The problem with this topic of conversation is that one can easily find laws proposed or passed by Republicans that would jail doctors.
We can start with Scott himself. Along with 44 other Republican senators, he is a co-sponsor of a bill, the Law for the Protection of the Unborn Child Capable of Pain, which makes it a crime to carry out an abortion if the development of the fetus is 20 weeks or more. A violator is subject to criminal penalties: a fine, a prison sentence of up to five years, or both.
Hmm, who would perform an abortion other than a doctor?
In Scott’s home state of Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis (R) signed an invoice last month banning virtually all abortions after a gestational age of 15 weeks, including in cases of rape or incest. “If a doctor violates the ban, he would be guilty of a third-degree felony, punishable by up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine.” saying the Tallahassee Democrat.
In Oklahoma, the Republican-dominated legislature passed —and the Republican governor signed— a bill making abortion a felony and criminalizing doctors who perform abortions. A doctor convicted of breaking the law could face up to 10 years in prison and $100,000 in fines. “The penalties are for the doctor, not the woman,” said Republican state Rep. Jim Olsen, who sponsored the bill.
In 2019, the Republican Governor of Alabama signed a law which puts doctors who perform abortions in the same legal category, a Class A felony, as rapists, murderers, and kidnappers. The minimum sentence for a Class A felony is 10 years, but can go up to 99 years in prison or life in prison.
There are many more examples, such as a new law in Arizona that threaten doctors who perform certain abortions with a minimum of six months in jail and a Republican proposition in Ohio punish doctors who perform abortions with up to two years in prison.
Long story short, this topic of conversation is nonsense. Anyone who made this claim would be ridiculed.
Send us data to check by filling in this form
Sign up for Fact Checker weekly newsletter
The Fact Checker is a checker signatory to the code of principles of the International Fact-Checking Network
Reference-www.washingtonpost.com