Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/21pdf/21-463_3ebh.pdf
Page Number: 33

2 

WHOLE WOMAN’S HEALTH v. JACKSON 

Opinion of ROBERTS, C. J. 

“aids or abets,” or intends to aid or abet, an abortion per-
formed after roughly six weeks; has special preclusion rules 
that allow multiple lawsuits concerning a single abortion; 
and contains broad venue provisions that allow lawsuits to 
be brought in any of Texas’s 254 far flung counties, no mat-
ter where the abortion took place.  See Tex. Health & Safety 
Code Ann. §§171.208(a), (e)(5), 171.210 (West Cum. Supp. 
2021).    The  law  then  provides  for  minimum  liability  of 
$10,000 plus costs and fees, while barring defendants from 
recovering  their  own  costs  and  fees  if  they  prevail.  
§§171.208(b), (i).  It also purports to impose backward-look-
ing liability should this Court’s precedents or an injunction 
law  be  overturned.  
preventing  enforcement  of  the 
§§171.208(e)(2), (3).  And it forbids many state officers from 
directly enforcing it.  §171.207. 
  These provisions, among others, effectively chill the pro-
vision of abortions in Texas.  Texas says that the law also 
blocks any pre-enforcement judicial review in federal court.  
On that latter contention, Texas is wrong.  As eight Mem-
bers  of  the  Court  agree,  see  ante,  at  11,  petitioners  may 
bring a pre-enforcement suit challenging the Texas law in 
federal court  under  Ex parte  Young,  209  U. S. 123  (1908), 
because there exist state executive officials who retain au-
thority  to  enforce  it.    See,  e.g.,  Tex.  Occ.  Code  Ann. 
§164.055(a) (West 2021).  Given the ongoing chilling effect 
of the state law, the District Court should resolve this liti-
gation and enter appropriate relief without delay. 
  In my view, several other respondents are also proper de-
fendants.    First,  under  Texas  law,  the  Attorney  General 
maintains  authority  coextensive  with  the  Texas  Medical 
Board to address violations of S. B. 8.  The Attorney Gen-
eral may “institute an action for a civil penalty” if a physi-
cian violates a rule or order of the Board.  Tex. Occ. Code 
Ann. §165.101.  The Board’s rules—found in the Texas Ad-
ministrative Code, see 22 Tex. Admin. Code §160.1(a) (West 
2021)—prohibit licensed physicians from violating Texas’s