The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Justice Dept. attempts to block abortion law
Texas’ bid to intervene 6 weeks into pregnancy called unconstitutional.
President Joe Biden’s Justice Department sued the state of Texas on Thursday to try to block the nation’s most restrictive abortion law, which bans the procedure as early as six weeks into pregnancy and allows private citizens to take legal action against anyone who helps a woman terminate her pregnancy.
At a news conference to announce the lawsuit filed in federal court in Austin, Attorney General Merrick Garland said the ban “is clearly unconstitutional under longstanding Supreme Court precedent.”
The Justice Department’s lawsuit says the Texas law is invalid under the Supremacy Clause and the Fourteenth Amendment, is preempted by federal law, and violates the doctrine of intergovernmental immunity.
Garland’s decision to intervene comes after a divided Supreme Court last week refused to stop enforcement of the law, which prohibits most abortions in Texas at a stage when many women do not yet realize they are pregnant. The only exceptions are when a woman’s health or life are at stake.
Biden and Democrats in Congress have sharply criticized the law and the Supreme Court’s decision not to block a ban that they say clearly violates a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion. The law took effect Sept. 1.
A dozen other states have passed legislation banning abortion after about six weeks into pregnancy. But federal judges have stopped those measures from taking effect, finding the laws inconsistent with Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision guaranteeing the right to choose abortion before viability, usually
around 22 to 24 weeks.
The Texas law was designed to withstand a similar preemptive legal challenge. It intentionally bars enforcement by state government officials, whom abortion providers would typically target in a lawsuit.
Instead, the law empowers private citizens to file civil lawsuits against anyone who helps a woman get an abortion after the six-week window. Those private citizens can receive a $10,000 award if their lawsuits are successful. Individuals can target abortion providers, clinic workers or those who help a woman pay for the procedure or drive her to a clinic.
In its 5-4 decision last week, the Supreme Court’s conservative majority said abortion providers and civil rights groups had “raised serious questions regarding the constitutionality of the Texas law.” But the majority allowed the ban to take effect while the legal battle plays out, saying the abortion providers and advocates who had challenged the law could not show they were suing the right people.