The Republican-dominated Texas legislature passed a bill that will effectively ban most abortions after six weeks, and Republican Governor Greg Abbott said he would sign the bill, the Texas Tribune reports.

The so-called “Texas Heartbeat Act” relies on a medically-dubious claim that life begins when a claimed heartbeat is heard in the fetus.  The Supreme Court standard is the viability of the fetus, which happens after 24 weeks of pregnancy, and a six-week limit means a number of women will be ineligible to get an abortion because they didn’t realize they were pregnant.

In the Texas bill, any person can challenge a woman’s ability to have an abortion simply by claiming she is more than six weeks pregnant.  The person challenging the abortion does not need to have an individual connection to the patient, the provider or the facility where the abortion would be performed.  The law would allow any individual to sue, forcing the woman to go to a court–at an undetermined timeframe–to prove that she was six weeks or less pregnant. 

The law does not provide for an abortion for a woman who is the victim of rape or incest, although women whose lives are in danger due to her pregnancy could seek one in certain circumstances.

The law is designed to circumvent any governmental responsibility for enforcing the law, giving private citizens the ability to sue anyone and everyone to prevent access to an abortion.  The reason:  to prevent pro-choice groups from suing government officials to prevent the law from taking effect; legal scholars say this is a dubious maneuver.

It is possible, under this law, that random women could be sued to stop an abortion if someone simply suspects that the woman is pregnant.