The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)

Biden administra­tion seeks to block abortion law

-

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 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.

The law bans abortion in Texas once cardiac activity is detected, which us 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.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United States