A federal judge has temporarily blocked the enforcement of Texas’s strict new abortion law that prohibits the procedure after a fetal heartbeat is detected.
The ruling on Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman, a Barack Obama-appointed judge, means Texas abortion providers can once again operate after about six weeks’ pregnancy without fear of being sued.
S.B. 8 outlawed abortions after approximately six weeks when a heartbeat is detected, which is before a lot of women know they are pregnant. The new law has led some pregnant women to go across state lines for abortions instead.
“From the moment S.B. 8 went into effect, women have been unlawfully prevented from exercising control over their lives in ways that are protected by the Constitution,” Pitman wrote in the 113-page ruling. “That other courts may find a way to avoid this conclusion is theirs to decide; this Court will not sanction one more day of this offensive deprivation of such an important right.”
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Prior to the ruling, Texas state officials had managed to prevent courts from blocking the new law. One way they got around the courts was by placing the power of lawsuits in the hands of citizens rather than lawyers. Other GOP-run states have tried to pass similar laws since S.B. 8, but every other attempt has been blocked by courts.
The lawsuit was brought by the Biden administration, which argued the law was unconstitutional, referring to the historic ruling in Roe v. Wade that protects women’s access to an abortion.
“A state may not ban abortions at six weeks,” said Brian Netter, an attorney with the Justice Department. “Texas knew this, but it wanted a six-week ban anyway, so the state resorted to an unprecedented scheme of vigilante justice that was designed to scare abortion providers and others who might help women exercise their constitutional rights.”
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Texas officials are likely to challenge the ruling in the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and the U.S. Supreme Court will likely have the final say.
The Supreme Court in a 5-4 ruling last month did not block the law from going into effect, as the ruling was based on procedural questions rather than the constitutionality of the law.
