The Texas Supreme Court effectively ended a legal challenge on Friday by clinics to the state’s law that banned most abortions in the state, ruling state officials and doctors do not have a role in the law’s enforcement.
The ruling follows a lawsuit against state officials by clinics opposed to Senate Bill 8, which bans most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. According to the law, private citizens may sue anyone who performs or assists a woman in receiving an abortion after a fetal heartbeat is detected.
“We address in this case a certified question from the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, 1 asking whether Texas law authorizes certain state officials to directly or indirectly enforce the state’s new abortion-restriction requirements. We conclude it does not,” the high court of Texas wrote in its ruling.
SUPREME COURT DECLINES TO LET FEDERAL JUDGE HEAR TEXAS ABORTION BAN CHALLENGE
The impact of the ruling effectively means the lawsuit by abortion providers against state defendants will not move forward.
The state Supreme Court’s decision comes after the U.S. Supreme Court heard a case over the law in December. A majority ruled abortion providers couldn’t sue state court clerks, but the case could proceed against licensing officials.
In January, a three-judge panel on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sent the legal fight over the Texas law to the state Supreme Court, and the U.S. Supreme Court denied a petition asking to send the case back to a district judge in Travis County, Texas, who had once blocked the law.
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After SB8 first took effect in September, the number of abortions in Texas declined by more than 60%. Roughly 2,200 abortions were reported by providers in the state in that month. The number is substantially less than the over 5,400 abortions that were conducted in August.
