Remember How Republicans (and all Americans) Couldn't Believe Neighbors Snitching on Each Other

So, when I was young and communism was a thing, one of the appalling aspects we were told of was that people in the Soviet Union, China, North Korea and Eastern Europe were paid to inform on each other. In this way, we were told, Communists had taken the worst of Nazi and Fascist's programs and turned them into a surveillance state.

Now, Texas has done the Fascists and Communists one better. If you "tell on" a woman trying to end her pregnancy, even if she was raped, you get a bounty of $10,000. Even the old "bad" communists didn't do this.

USSR Poster reminding people to be on watch against neighbors.

Quote

At midnight on Wednesday, in an unsigned, 5–4 decision, the Supreme Court effectively overturned Roe v. Wade. The five most conservative Republican-appointed justices refused to block Texas’ abortion ban, which allows anyone to sue any individual who “aids or abets” an abortion after six weeks, when the vast majority occur. There is no exception for rape or incest. The decision renders almost all abortions in Texas illegal for the first time since 1973. Although the majority did not say these words exactly, the upshot of Wednesday’s decision is undeniable: The Supreme Court has abandoned the constitutional right to abortion. Roe is no longer good law.

Texas’ ban, known as SB 8, constitutes a uniquely insidious workaround to Roe. It outlaws abortion after six weeks, but does not call on state officials to enforce its restrictions.

Instead, as Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in dissent, the law “deputized the state’s citizens as bounty hunters, offering them cash prizes for civilly prosecuting their neighbors’ medical procedures.” (highlights mine) Random strangers can sue any “abettor” to an abortion anywhere in Texas and collect a minimum of $10,000, plus attorneys’ fees. The act’s language is incredibly broad, encompassing any friend, family member, clergy member, or counselor who facilitates the abortion in any way. Every employee of an abortion clinic, from front-desk staff to doctors, is liable as well. And when an individual successfully sues an abortion provider, the court must permanently shut it down.