# Texas Heartbeat Act The Texas Heartbeat Act (Senate Bill 8), signed in May 2021 and effective September 1, 2021, banned most abortions after roughly six weeks of pregnancy. Its distinguishing feature was enforcement: rather than having the state enforce the ban, SB 8 deputized private citizens to sue anyone who "aids or abets" a prohibited abortion, with a bounty of at least $10,000 — a design deliberately structured to evade the pre-enforcement judicial review that normally blocks unconstitutional abortion restrictions. The Supreme Court declined to stop the law from taking effect, and SB 8 became a template for the private-enforcement, bounty-hunter model of culture-war legislation. It preceded and helped set the stage for [[Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization]], which overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. SB 8 is a marquee product of Texas as the movement's culture-war laboratory. ## See Also - [[Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization]] - [[Christian Nationalism]] - [[Texas History Hub]]