Oct. 19, 2021
The Division of Justice has filed a quick requesting the U.S. Supreme Court docket briefly block a extremely restrictive abortion regulation in Texas.
Supreme Court docket Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. has requested officers in Texas to file a response to the Justice Division by midday Thursday, which means the Excessive Court docket might act extra shortly than regular, The New York Times reported.
The Justice Division additionally requested the Supreme Court docket to hurry up the method and deal with the Texas regulation’s constitutionality this calendar yr, The Instances stated. If that occurs, an appeals courtroom listening to scheduled for December could be bypassed.
The Texas regulation went into impact Sept. 1 and prohibits abortion as soon as a fetal heartbeat is detected, which is often round 6 weeks.
The Justice Division brief stated the regulation “nearly eradicated entry to abortion in Texas after six weeks of being pregnant. Texas has, briefly, efficiently nullified this courtroom’s choices inside its borders.”
The Supreme Court docket legalized abortion with the Roe vs. Wade resolution in 1972. Since then, the Justice Division transient stated, the courtroom has dominated many occasions that “a State might not prohibit any lady from making the last word resolution to terminate her being pregnant earlier than viability” – typically accepted as 22-24 weeks into the being pregnant.
The Texas regulation “defies these precedents by banning abortion lengthy earlier than viability — certainly, earlier than many ladies even understand they’re pregnant,” the transient stated.
The regulation additionally has an uncommon characteristic that permits a citizen of Texas to convey civil fits in opposition to anybody who helps a pregnant particular person in search of an abortion, if solely by giving them a trip to a clinic.
A couple of days after the regulation went into impact, President Joe Biden stated he would launch a wide-reaching federal effort to overturn the “weird” statute.
The U.S. Supreme Court docket declined by a 5-4 vote Sept. 1 to behave on emergency appeals to place the regulation on maintain. A federal choose in Texas ruled Oct. 6 that enforcement of the brand new regulation might be halted whereas it really works its manner by means of courtroom. However the Fifth Circuit Court docket of Appeals on Oct. 14 dominated that the regulation can stay in impact whereas it’s litigated.
