Justice Dept. sues to block Texas abortion law
WASHINGTON – The Justice Department is suing the state of Texas in an attempt to block the enforcement of a strict abortion law decried by the Biden administration as an untenable denial of reproductive health care for women.
“The (Texas) act is clearly unconstitutional under long-standing Supreme Court precedent,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said Thursday.
This “scheme to nullify the Constitution” is one that all Americans, whatever their politics, should fear, Garland said.
The civil action seeks a permanent injunction to keep the state from enforcing the law, claiming the state law is “invalid and pre-empted by federal law.”
The Texas law, known as Senate Bill 8, bans abortions when a fetal heartbeat is detected, usually at about six weeks of pregnancy. The law doesn’t include exceptions for rape or incest but allows women to have the procedure for “medical emergencies.”
Another provision of the measure also allows private citizens to sue abortion providers and anyone involved in “aiding and abetting” abortions, prompting Garland to assail the law as encouraging vigilantes to seek bounties for bringing successful legal action.
The federal lawsuit took direct aim at the so-called bounty provision, asserting that “the state has deputized ordinary citizens to serve as bounty hunters who are statutorily authorized to recover at least $10,000 per claim from individuals who facilitate a woman’s exercise of her constitutional rights.”
“It takes little imagination to discern Texas’s goal – to make it too risky for an abortion clinic to operate in the state, thereby preventing women throughout Texas from exercising their constitutional rights, while simultaneously thwarting judicial review,” the lawsuit states. “Thus far, the law has had its desired effect. To date, abortion providers have ceased providing services prohibited by S.B. 8.”
Renae Eze, spokesperson for Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, defended that law and cast federal action as an attempt to change “the national narrative” and the administration’s “disastrous Afghanistan evacuation.”
“We are confident that the courts will uphold and protect that right to life,” Eze said.
Brigitte Amiri, deputy director of the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project, called the federal lawsuit “welcome news.”
“This first step by the Department of Justice is critical to righting this injustice for the people of Texas and to prevent this catastrophe from playing out in other states,” Amiri said.
Meanwhile, Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the anti-abortion Susan B. Anthony (SBA) List, derided the Biden administration as “out of touch with the American people.”
“The Texas Heartbeat Act is a response to 50 years of Supreme Court interference in states’ legitimate interest in protecting life and their right to debate and pass laws reflecting their people’s values,” Dannenfelser said.
The department’s filing comes more than a week after a divided Supreme Court allowed the Texas law to take effect.
President Joe Biden predicted the law would unleash “unconstitutional chaos” and said it would require “millions of women in Texas in need of critical reproductive care to suffer while courts sift through procedural complexities.”
Abortion providers have said the legislation would restrict 85% of abortion procedures in Texas. The law is one of the most direct challenges on the boundaries of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 landmark Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion.