AUSTIN, Texas (AP) – A federal judge ordered Texas on Wednesday to suspend the most restrictive abortion law in the United States, calling it an “offensive disfranchisement” by banning most abortions in the nation’s second most populous state since September.
US District Judge Robert Pitman’s order marks the first legal blow to Texas law known as Senate Bill 8, which has so far withstood a wave of early controversy. In the weeks since the restrictions went into effect, Texas abortion providers have said the impact is “just what we feared”.
In a 113-page statement, Pitman held Texas accountable for the law, saying Republican lawmakers had “invented an unprecedented and transparent legal system” by leaving enforcement in the hands of private individuals entitled to compensation for damages cashing in on $ 10,000 in successful lawsuits against abortion providers who violate the restrictions.
The law, signed by Republican Governor Greg Abbott in May, prohibits abortions once cardiac activity is detected, which usually takes about six weeks before some women even know they are pregnant.
“Since SB 8 came into effect, women have been illegally prevented from controlling their lives in a constitutionally protected manner,” wrote Pitman, who was appointed to the bank by former President Barack Obama.
“It is up to them for other courts to find a way to avoid that conclusion; This court will not punish this insulting deprivation of such an important right for a day. ”
But even with the statute on hold, Texas abortion services may not resume immediately as doctors still fear they could be sued without a more permanent legal decision. Planned Parenthood said it was hopeful that the order would allow clinics to resume abortion services as soon as possible.
Texas officials were quick to advise the court of their intention to request an overturn on Jan.
The lawsuit was brought by the Biden administration, which said the restrictions were in violation of the US Constitution. Attorney General Merrick Garland called the order “a victory for women in Texas and for the rule of law.”
The law had been in force since September 1st.
“For more than a month now, Texans have been denied access to abortion due to an unconstitutional law that should never have come into effect. The discharge granted by the court today is overdue and we are grateful that the Department of Justice acted quickly to request it, ”said Alexis McGill Johnson, President and CEO of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
Texas Right to Life, the state’s largest anti-abortion group, said the order was not unexpected.
“This is ultimately the legacy of Roe v. Wade that there are activist judges who bend over backwards, bend precedents, bend the law to suit the abortion industry, ”said Kimberlyn Schwartz, a spokeswoman for the group. “These activist judges will first draw their conclusion: that abortion is a so-called constitutional right and then work backwards from there.”
Abortion providers say their fears have become a reality in the short time the law went into effect. According to Planned Parenthood, the number of Texas patients in the state’s clinics has decreased by nearly 80% in the two weeks since the law went into effect.
Some providers have said that Texas clinics are now in danger of closing while neighboring states are struggling to keep up with the flood of patients who have to drive hundreds of kilometers. Other women, they say, are being forced to carry pregnancies to term.
Other states, particularly in the south, have passed similar laws banning abortions in the first few weeks of pregnancy, all of which have been blocked by judges. A 1992 US Supreme Court ruling prevented states from banning abortions before viability, the point at which a fetus can survive outside the uterus, approximately 24 weeks after pregnancy.
But the Texas version had so far outmaneuvered the courts by leaving enforcement to private individuals, not prosecutors, which critics say is a bounty.
“This is not a form of vigilante justice,” said Will Thompson, attorney for the Texas Attorney General, when defending the law in front of Pitman last week. “This is a scheme that uses the normal, lawful process of the Texas judiciary.”
Texas law is just one that has set the largest test of abortion rights in the United States in decades, and it is part of a broader push by Republicans across the country to impose new abortion restrictions.
On Monday, the US Supreme Court began a new term that will include arguments in Mississippi’s December offer to support the landmark Roe v. Wade from 1973, which guarantees a woman’s right to abortion.
Last month, the court failed to rule on the constitutionality of the Texan law that allowed it to remain in effect. But abortion providers viewed that 5-4 vote as an ominous sign of where the court might go on abortion after its conservative majority was bolstered with three appointments from former President Donald Trump.
Ahead of the Supreme Court’s new tenure, Planned Parenthood released a report on Friday that said 26 states are ready to ban abortions if Roe is overthrown against Wade. This year alone, nearly 600 abortion restrictions were introduced in state houses across the country, according to Planned Parenthood, of which more than 90 have been enshrined in law.
Texas officials argued in court records that even if the law were temporarily waived, vendors could still face litigation for violations that could occur in the time between a final decision.
At least one abortion provider in Texas has admitted to breaking the law and has been sued – but not by anti-abortionists. Former Illinois and Arkansas lawyers say they sued a San Antonio doctor in hopes of getting a judge to invalidate the law.
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Dallas Associated Press Writer Jamie Stengle contributed to this report
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