Biden admin. urges judge to block abortion law
AUSTIN, Texas — The Biden administration on Friday urged a federal judge to block the nation’s most restrictive abortion law, which has banned most abortions in Texas since early September and sent women racing to get care beyond the borders of the second-most populous state.
U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, did not say when he would rule following a nearly three-hour hearing in Austin.
At least one Texas abortion provider said it stood ready to resume offering services at its three clinics if the law known as Senate Bill 8 is temporarily shelved.
“Every day that S.B. 8 is in effect, we turn away patients in droves,” Amy Hagstrom Miller, president of Whole Woman’s Health, told the court in a filing.
So far, abortion providers trying to block the Texas law have been rejected at every turn. That makes a lawsuit filed by the Biden administration their best chance yet to deliver the first legal blow to the GOPengineered law.
It has withstood an early wave of challenges, including one reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court, which allowed the law to remain in force.
The law bans abortion in Texas once cardiac activity is detected, which is usually around six weeks, before some women know they are pregnant. No exceptions are made in cases of rape or incest.
Enforcement is solely left up to private citizens, who are entitled to at least $10,000 in damages if they are successful in suing not just abortion providers but anyone found to have helped a woman get an abortion.
“A state may not ban abortions at six weeks. Texas knew this, but it wanted
a six-week ban anyway, so the state resorted to an unprecedented scheme of vigilante justice that was designed to scare abortion providers and others who might help women exercise their constitutional rights,” Justice Department attorney Brian Netter told the court.
The law was signed by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott in May and took effect Sept. 1.
In that short time, abortion providers say, “exactly what we feared” has become reality.
Planned Parenthood says the number of patients from Texas at its Texas clinics decreased nearly 80% in the two weeks after the law took effect.
Some providers have described Texas clinics that are now in danger of closing while neighboring states struggle to keep up with a surge of patients who must drive hundreds of miles. Other women, they say, are being forced to carry pregnancies to term.
If the Justice Department prevails, Texas officials would likely seek a swift reversal from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which previously allowed the restrictions to take effect.