Texas, Oct 7 (BUS): A federal judge has ordered Texas to suspend the most restrictive abortion law in the United States, calling it an “abusive denial” of a constitutional right by banning most abortions in the country’s second most populous state since September . .
The order issued by US District Judge Robert Pittman on Wednesday is the first legal slap to a Texas law known as Senate Act 8, which has so far withstood a wave of early challenges. In the weeks after the restrictions took effect, Texas abortion providers say the effect has been “exactly what we feared.”
In a 113-page opinion, Pittman took Texas to account on the law, saying Republican lawmakers had “created an unprecedented and transparent legal scheme” by leaving enforcement in the hands of only private citizens, who would be entitled to $10,000 in damages if they were the Associated Press reported ( AP) successfully filed lawsuits against abortion providers who violate the restrictions.
The law, which Republican Governor Greg Abbott signed in May, bans abortions once heart activity is detected, which is usually about six weeks, before some women know they are pregnant.
Appointed by former President Barack Obama, Pittman wrote, “From the moment Subsidiary Eight came into force, women have been unlawfully prevented from exercising control over their lives in ways protected by the Constitution.”
“It is up to them to decide that other courts may find a way to avoid this conclusion; this court will not punish another day for such an aggressive denial of such an important right.”
But even with the law suspended, Texas abortion services may not immediately resume because doctors still fear they could be sued without a permanent legal decision. Planned Parenthood said it hoped the order would allow clinics to resume abortion services as soon as possible.
Texas officials were quick to notify the court of their intent to seek to reverse a decision by the Fifth US Court of Appeals, which previously allowed the restrictions to take effect.
The suit was brought by the Biden administration, which said the restrictions were enacted in defiance of the US Constitution. Attorney General Merrick Garland called it “a victory for Texas women and the rule of law.”
The law has been in effect since 1 September.
For more than a month now, Texans have been denied access to abortion due to an unconstitutional law that should not have gone into effect. The exemption granted today by the court is overdue, and we are grateful that the Department of Justice moved quickly on its request, said Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of America.
That wasn’t unexpected, said Texas Right to Life, the state’s largest anti-abortion group.
“This is ultimately the legacy of Roe v. Wade, that you have activist judges veering backwards, deflecting precedents, and breaking the law, in order to cater to the abortion industry,” said Kimberlyn Schwartz, a spokeswoman for the group. “These activist judges will first establish their conclusion: that abortion is the so-called constitutional right and then work backwards from there.”
Abortion providers say their concerns have become a reality in the short time the law has gone into effect.
Planned Parenthood says the number of Texans in its clinics in the state fell by about 80 percent in the two weeks after the law went into effect.
Some providers said Texas clinics are now at risk of closing as neighboring states struggle to keep up with a wave of patients who have to drive hundreds of miles. They say other women are being forced to carry on with pregnancies.
Other states, mostly in the South, have passed similar laws banning abortion in the first weeks of pregnancy, all of which have been banned by judges. A 1992 US Supreme Court decision prevented states from banning abortion before it was viable, the point at which a fetus can live outside the womb, around 24 weeks of gestation.
But the Texas version has so far outperformed the courts because it leaves enforcement for private citizens to sue, not to prosecutors, which critics say amounts to a bonus.
“This is not some kind of custodial scheme,” said Will Thompson, an attorney for the Texas attorney general’s office, while defending the law before Pittman last week. “This is a scheme that uses the normal and legal Texas justice process.”
The Texas law is just one that put the biggest test of abortion rights in the United States in decades, and is part of a broader campaign by Republicans across the country to impose new restrictions on abortion.
On Monday, the US Supreme Court began a new term that will include arguments in December in Mississippi’s bid to overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision guaranteeing a woman’s right to an abortion.
Last month, the court did not rule on the constitutionality of a Texas law allowing it to remain in place. But abortion providers took that 5-4 vote as an ominous sign of where the court might head on abortion after its conservative majority was immunized with three appointees by former President Donald Trump.
Ahead of the new Supreme Court term, Planned Parenthood on Friday released a report saying that if Roe v. Wade is overturned, 26 states are willing to ban abortion. This year alone, nearly 600 abortion restrictions have been introduced in state homes nationwide, and more than 90 have become laws, according to Planned Parenthood.
Texas officials have argued in court filings that even if the law is temporarily suspended, providers can still face the threat of litigation for violations that may occur in the interval between a permanent ruling.
A Texas abortion provider has admitted to violating the law and has been prosecuted – but not by abortion opponents. Former attorneys in Illinois and Arkansas say they sued a San Antonio doctor in hopes of getting a judge to overturn the law.
MI