- A new Texas law banning abortions will take effect six weeks later.
- The U.S. Supreme Court took no action to block the law.
- The law allows citizens to sue abortion clinics.
The Texas state’s ban on abortion after six weeks of pregnancy took effect on Wednesday morning, after the U.S. Supreme Court did not take action on the emergency request of abortion rights groups to prevent the law from implementing the ban.
Unless the court makes a ruling later, its failure to act on the injunction requests of these groups before midnight will allow the injunction to continue in litigation in which these groups question their constitutionality.
Read | U.S. judge cracks down on Tennessee abortion law requiring 48-hour waiting period
The Abortion Rights Organization stated that 85%-90% of abortions in Texas are performed after six weeks of pregnancy, which means that the law is likely to force many clinics to close.
They said that since the Supreme Court’s ruling in Roe v. Wade in 1973, no state has allowed such an injunction. This is a landmark ruling that legalizes abortion nationwide.
Planned Parenthood and other women’s health care providers, doctors, and clergy challenged the law in a federal court in Austin in July, arguing that the law violated the constitutional right to abortion.
Costly litigation
The unusual thing about this law, signed on May 19, is that it gives ordinary citizens the power to enforce the law, enabling them to sue abortion providers and anyone who “helps or abets” abortions six weeks later.
Citizens who win such lawsuits will be entitled to at least $10,000.
Abortion providers said the law could lead to hundreds of costly lawsuits that are logistically difficult to defend.
In a legal document, Texas officials told the judge to reject the abortion provider’s request, saying the law “may never be enforced by anyone.”
Stephen Vladeck, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin School of Law, said in a tweet that the court can still shelve the injunction, and no court has yet ruled whether it is constitutional.
“Although some people will say, this is not the’end’ of Roe,” he said.
Texas, one of a dozen states led mainly by the Republican Party, has issued a “heartbeat” abortion ban, once the rhythmic contraction of the fetal heart tissue can be detected, usually within six weeks-sometimes in female consciousness The procedure is forbidden until oneself becomes pregnant.
The court has blocked such injunctions.
Mississippi has asked the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade, and the judge agreed to hear the 2018 law prohibiting abortion after 15 weeks.
The judges will hear the debate during their next term starting in October and will make a ruling in late June 2022.
The Texas challenge aims to prevent judges, county secretaries, and other state entities from enforcing the law.
A federal judge rejected the application to dismiss the case, prompting him to immediately appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans, Louisiana, which stopped further proceedings.
On Sunday, the Fifth Circuit rejected the abortion provider’s request to block the law during the appeal.
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