Residents of Texas can now sue people who they suspect of making, distributing or mailing abortion pills in or out of the state, in a first-of-its-kind law that aims to dam the flood of abortion pills into states that ban the procedure.

Under the new law, which went into effect on Thursday, abortion providers could face penalties of at least $100,000 if they mail pills into Texas. Manufacturers of abortion pills are also eligible to be sued, although women who take abortion pills are not.

Anti-abortion activists are hoping that the law will escalate the war between states that protect abortion rights and those that do not, since it marks the first legislative challenge to “shield laws”. Enacted in a handful of blue states after the fall of Roe v Wade, shield laws aim to protect abortion providers from out-of-state prosecution, even if they are shipping pills across state borders. By the end of 2024, abortion providers in shield-law states like Massachusetts and New York were facilitating more than 12,000 abortions a month in states that ban the procedure, including in Texas, according to #WeCount, a research project by the Society of Family Planning.

“They are going beyond their jurisdiction and their authority by coming into Texas and hurting Texas women and killing Texas babies with abortion pills,” said John Seago, the president of Texas Right to Life and one of the main architects behind Texas’ new abortion ban. “We think there is going to be a kind of this standoff between Texas and New York that maybe goes back to the supreme court. I would be very interested to get that case. We’re actually looking to spur that on.”

The new Texas law closely resembles a 2021 ban, passed while Roe was still in effect, that permitted people to sue individuals who they believed had “aided or abetted” an abortion. Although abortion providers stopped operating in Texas out of fear of litigation, few people ever went so far as to file lawsuits.

Now, despite the risks, several abortion providers who operate using shield laws say they will not stop shipping pills to Texas.

“Our practice mantra has been – since the beginning – no anticipatory obedience. We are going to continue to provide care to patients in all 50 states in DC and all territories until we are legally unable to do so,” said Dr Angel Foster, co-founder of the Boston-area based Massachusetts Medication Abortion Access Project (Map), which uses telemedicine to ship abortion pills across the US. “Passage of a bill is not a sufficient condition for us to change our practice, particularly one that just appears to be so, so much of an overreach.”

In the three years since the US supreme court overturned Roe v Wade, anti-abortion activists have pivoted to battling the expansion of shield laws and telemedicine, which now accounts for one in four US abortions. Abortion pills are so popular, in fact, that the number of US abortions has risen – not dropped – since Roe’s demise.

But so far, these activists’ attempts to attack shield laws have yielded few tangible results. The Texas attorney general, Republican Ken Paxton, sued a New York doctor accused of mailing abortion pills to a Texan last late year, then sued a New York county clerk who said New York’s shield law prevented him from enforcing a Texas fine against the doctor. A New York judge dismissed Paxton’s lawsuit against the clerk in October, ruling that the clerk was simply filing New York law.

Louisiana has indicted the same New York doctor, as well as issued a warrant for a California doctor who allegedly mailed abortion pills into the state. Neither would-be prosecution has advanced.

Amelia, a Texas woman who recently used abortion pills that she received through the Map, said that the new Texas law “disgusts me”. Realizing she was pregnant was so traumatic that, Amelia said, she started screaming and collapsed on the floor. Her husband had to pick her limp body up.

But the abortion itself, she said, was relatively low-key. She took the pills over the course of a long weekend, rested with her husband, and ate her favorite food – sushi – for dinner.

“I’m extremely blessed that I even live in a time or in a place where I had that option. I feel motivated. I feel if and or when I am ready to bring a child into this world, I would have made the right decision for myself,” she said. “I feel like a lot of women out there would benefit with knowing that this service is something that exists, especially in states like mine.”

But now, the new Texas law has made Amelia contemplate leaving Texas.

“I get really angry. It’s so disheartening,” she said. “It’s just really scary for me, for all women, for all people who can give birth, for families.”