A top House Democrat called on the Justice Department to “use the full force of the department” to combat the new Texas law banning abortions beyond six weeks.
In a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler and fellow panel Democrats said the Justice Department “is fully empowered to prosecute” anyone who blocks a woman from obtaining an abortion.
Democrats are seeking ways to respond to a 5-4 Supreme Court decision last week allowing the Texas law to go into effect.
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Nadler, of New York, cited the dissenting opinion written by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who stated that it “cannot be the case that a State can evade federal judicial scrutiny by outsourcing the enforcement of unconstitutional laws to its citizenry.”
Similarly, Nadler wrote to Garland, “The Department of Justice cannot permit private individuals seeking to deprive women of the constitutional right to choose an abortion to escape scrutiny under existing federal law simply because they attempt to do so under the color of state law.”
Nadler sent the letter a week after the top House Democrat signaled that Congress may also take action to block Texas or any other state from imposing restrictions on obtaining an abortion.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said last week that she will bring up a bill that would enshrine into federal law sweeping protections for abortion procedures, essentially codifying the landmark Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision, when Congress returns later this month.
“The Supreme Court’s cowardly, dark-of-night decision to uphold a flagrantly unconstitutional assault on women’s rights and health is staggering. That this radically partisan Court chose to do so without a full briefing, oral arguments or providing a full, signed opinion is shameful,” Pelosi said in a statement.
Pelosi’s bill, called the Women’s Health Protection Act, would prohibit states from implementing many kinds of requirements or restrictions that abortion advocates argue infringe on reproductive rights.
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Pelosi’s legislation could pass the House with a simple majority and garner support among a few Senate Republicans — but likely not enough to overcome a filibuster in the upper chamber.
