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A Texas law that prohibits abortions as young as six weeks pregnant may continue for the time being, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals said Friday evening. The decision comes two days after a federal judge temporarily prohibited state to enforce the law through a preliminary injunction.
The decision comes hours after Ken Paxton, Attorney General for Texas, filed a motion asking the court to either stop the preliminary injunction or temporarily suspend it while the first request is considered.
A three-judge panel granted the second request, administratively staying the injunction while it examines Texas’ larger argument. The Justice Department now has until Tuesday to respond to Texas’ motion.
One of the defining characteristics of the Texas abortion law is its unusual enforcement regime: no state official enforces violations of the ban. Instead, the law allows private citizens to bring civil suits in state courts against alleged law breakers – clinics, providers, or even people who assist a woman to have an abortion – and provides them with counseling. financial incentive to do so. If an action is successful, the plaintiff is entitled to at least $ 10,000 from the offender.
The mechanism complicates the efforts of abortion providers who seek to prevent the law from coming into force, as it has not been entirely clear who they should sue.
The 5th Circuit ruling comes after Judge Robert L. Pitman granted the Justice Department’s request for a temporary injunction on Wednesday as the constitutionality of the law is still being debated in court. He lambasted the state of Texas for its enforcement mechanism and accused it of deliberately circumventing traditional judicial review.
Texas, he wrote in its order, “drafted the law with the intention of preventing review by federal courts who have an obligation to protect the very rights that the law is likely to infringe.”
“The state created a private cause of action whereby people with no personal interest or connection to a person seeking an abortion would be induced to use the judiciary, judges and state court officials to interfere with the right to abortion, ”Pitman said.
“From the moment SB 8 came into effect, women have been unlawfully prevented from exercising control over their lives in a way that is constitutionally protected,” the order reads. “It is up to them to decide whether other courts find a way to avoid this conclusion; this Court will not one more day sanction this offensive deprivation of such an important right.”
He also rejected the state’s motion to dismiss the Justice Department’s lawsuit challenging the law.
Republican Governor Greg Abbott signed the measure enacted in May, with Texas joining a dozen other states that have passed laws banning early-stage abortions. The bills aim to ban the procedure after a fetal heartbeat is first detected.
Attorney General Merrick Garland released a statement after the Texas abortion ban went into effect last month, promising the Justice Department would “continue to protect” the safety of Texas women seeking abortions.
Nicole Sganga, Rob Legare, Caroline Linton and Melissa Quinn contributed reporting.
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