Texas wins bid to reinstate abortion law challenged by Biden administration

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WASHINGTON – A U.S. appeals court temporarily reinstated Texas’ near-total abortion ban on Friday, a setback for abortion rights advocates and the Biden administration.

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The United States Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, an intermediate court of appeals, said it was suspending an October 6 lower court ruling blocking the abortion law.

The administrative stay of the Fifth Circuit, a conservative appeals court, came in a lawsuit filed by the US Department of Justice on September 9. The purpose of the administrative stay is to give the court time to determine whether to issue a more permanent ruling.

Texas abortion law, which went into effect Sept. 1, prohibits abortions around six weeks of pregnancy.

The law makes no exceptions for pregnancies caused by rape or incest. It also allows ordinary citizens to enforce the ban, rewarding them with at least $ 10,000 if they successfully sue anyone who helped provide an abortion after fetal heart activity is detected. Critics of the law have said that this provision allows people to act as bounty hunters against abortion.

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Federal District Judge Robert Pitman in Austin temporarily blocked the abortion ban on Wednesday as litigation over its legality continues.

The Justice Department has argued that the law prevents women from exercising their constitutional right to terminate a pregnancy that was recognized in the Roe v. Wade’s 1973 Supreme Court, which legalized abortion across the country. The department also argued that the law improperly interferes with the federal government’s operations to provide abortion-related services.