Near-total ban on abortions takes effect in Texas
The United States’ most far-reaching curb on abortions since they were legalised half a century ago took effect yesterday in Texas as the conservative majority Supreme Court voted five-four against an emergency appeal to put the law on hold.
But the justices suggested other challenges to it can still be brought.
“In reaching this conclusion, we stress that we do not purport to resolve definitively any jurisdictional or substantive claim in the applicants’ lawsuit. In particular, this order is not based on any conclusion about the constitutionality of Texas’s law, and in no way limits other procedurally proper challenges to the Texas law, including in Texas state courts,” the unsigned order said.
The law, which bans most abortions, is the strictest against abortion rights in the United States since the high court’s landmark Roe v Wade decision in 1973.
The Texas law, signed by Republican Governor Greg Abbott in May, prohibits abortions once medical professionals can detect cardiac activity, usually about six weeks and before most women know they’re pregnant.
It’s part of a broader push by Republicans across the US to impose new restrictions on abortion.
What makes the Texas law different is its unusual enforcement scheme. Rather than have officials responsible for enforcing the law, private citizens are authorised to sue abortion providers and anyone involved in facilitating abortions.
Among other situations, that would include anyone who drives a woman to a clinic to get an abortion.
Under the law, anyone who successfully sues another person would be entitled to at least US$10,000 ($14,150). “Starting today, every unborn child with a heartbeat will be protected from the ravages of abortion,” Abbott said on Twitter. “Texas will always defend the right to life.” Protests were swift. President Joe Biden said the law “blatantly violates the constitutional right established under Roe v Wade and upheld as precedent for nearly half a century”. He said the law “outrageously” gives private citizens the power “to bring lawsuits against anyone who they believe has helped another person get an abortion”.
Likewise, the American Medical Association said it was deeply disturbed by “this egregious law” and disappointed by the Supreme Court’s verdict.
The law “not only bans virtually all abortions in the state, but it interferes in the patient-physician relationship and places bounties on physicians and health care workers simply for delivering care”, said Dr Gerald Harmon, the AMA president.
Clinics have said the law would rule out 85 per cent of abortions in Texas and force many clinics to close.
The law is part of a far-right agenda that Texas Republicans muscled through the statehouse this year ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, when Abbott is up for a third term as governor.
Another law taking effect yesterday ended the firearm training and background checks required to carry handguns in public in Texas. Republican lawmakers on Wednesday approved election changes that will make it one of the hardest states in America to cast a vote.