Attorney General Merrick Garland announced Thursday that the Justice Department has filed a lawsuit against Texas in response to a state law banning abortions after six weeks’ gestation.

Texas’s Senate Bill 8, also known as the Texas Heartbeat Act, prohibits abortion after six weeks’ gestation unless a woman’s life is in danger. The law has another controversial provision permitting any person to bring a civil action against anyone who performs an abortion procedure or “aids or abets” such a procedure after six weeks.