The Johnson County Sheriff’s Office in Texas says it used 83,000 automatic license plate reader (ALPR) cameras (created by Flock) to track down a woman who had a self-managed abortion because law enforcement was supposedly concerned about her “safety,” reports The Independent.
Johnson County Sheriff Adam King told 404 Media why law enforcement tried to find the woman against her will:
[The woman’s family was] worried that she was going to bleed to death, and we were trying to find her to get her to a hospital. We weren’t trying to block her from leaving the state or whatever to get an abortion. It was about her safety.
However, NBC News reports that license plate trackers can be accessed by states that oppose abortions.
Texas is looking to prosecute women who have abortions, notes The Independent:
This week, a bill in the state legislature allowing private citizens to sue those who facilitate telehealth abortions for upwards of $100,000 failed to pass a key hurdle, likely meaning it won’t be passed during the current session.
About 1 in 5 abortions are done through telehealth, with about half of the patients living in states that ban or limit abortion, according to 19th News.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has targeted a New York-based doctor for allegedly selling mail-order abortion pills to a Texas patient.
Earlier this month, a Texas midwife was arrested for allegedly owning and operating a network of illegal abortion clinics.
In 2022, a Texas woman was jailed and charged with murder for a self-managed abortion, though prosecutors later dropped the charges. The woman has since sued local officials over the arrest.
(Sources: The Independent, 404 Media, 19th News, NBC News/YouTube)