REACTION. Defenders of the termination of pregnancy condemned the impact the new law will have. | File Photo: Elijah Nouvelage / The Washington Post
The Justice Department asked a federal judge to issue a temporary restraining order or court action that stops Texas from enforcing a law that bans nearly all abortions in the state. The petition escalates a battle between the Joe Biden administration and the Republicans, led by Gov. Greg Abbott.
The context: The request comes shortly after the Biden administration sued Texas to try to block the law, which prohibits termination of pregnancy beyond the first six weeks; furthermore, it allows private citizens to take legal action against anyone who helps a woman to have an abortion.
- The Department argued, in its request issued Tuesday night, that Texas had adopted the law, known as Senate Bill 8 (SB 8), “to prevent women from exercising their constitutional rights.”
- The agency added that even though the Supreme Court has ruled that a state cannot prohibit any woman from aborting before feasibility, Texas has restricted that option.
- Texas law went into effect Sept. 1, ending most abortions in the nation’s second-most populous state, with no exceptions for rape or incest.
What do they say? The text reads that Texas had devised “an unprecedented scheme that seeks to deny women and providers the ability to challenge SB 8 in federal court. This attempt to protect a clearly unconstitutional law from review cannot be sustained ”.
- A dozen other states have passed laws prohibiting abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy. But federal judges have prevented those measures from taking effect.
Main source of the news: The Washington Post.
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