Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has moved toward appealing a block on the state’s strict abortion law, his office announced Thursday.
Paxton did not say when he would file the expected appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in defense of Senate Bill 8, which restricts abortions after fetal heartbeats are detected, but he said the motion stems from “the sanctity of human life” being a “top priority” of his.
“We disagree with the Court’s decision and have already taken steps to immediately appeal it to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals,” his office tweeted. “The sanctity of human life is, and will always be, a top priority for me.”
FEDERAL JUDGE PUTS TEXAS ABORTION LAW ON HOLD
On Wednesday, Judge Robert Pitman ordered an immediate stop to the abortion ban, saying women were “unlawfully prevented from exercising control over their lives in ways that are protected by the Constitution” under the legislation. In his 113-page ruling, Pitman called the law “unconstitutional.”
“A person’s right under the Constitution to choose to obtain an abortion prior to fetal viability is well established,” Pitman wrote. “Fully aware that depriving its citizens of this right by direct state action would be flagrantly unconstitutional, the State contrived an unprecedented and transparent statutory scheme to do just that.”
The law in question prohibits abortions after fetal heartbeats are detected, which generally occurs around the six-week mark, before many women know they are pregnant, critics argue. The law also allows private citizens to file lawsuits and earn a judgment of up to $10,000 against anyone who “aids or abets” in getting an abortion after that point, a provision that critics, such as the American Civil Liberties Union, say “actively encourages private individuals to act as bounty hunters by awarding them at least $10,000 if they are successful.”
Supporters have applauded the law, which took effect last month after the Supreme Court declined to intervene in a 5-4 vote, with Rebecca Parma, the senior legislative associate at the Texas Senate Research Center, saying it is the “strongest Pro-Life bill passed by the Legislature since Roe v. Wade.”
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The issue may eventually return to the Supreme Court because the high court’s September ruling allowing the legislation to stand was on procedural grounds rather than a question of the legislation’s constitutionality.
