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A new law in Texas came into effect Wednesday, banning abortion after about six weeks of pregnancy.
The implementation of the law came after the failure of the Supreme Court ruling on the basis of an urgent request from clinics and abortion rights advocates to prevent it.
State law, signed by Republican Gov. J. Greg Abbott, in May, with an effective September 1 date, prohibits abortions once a doctor can detect fetal heart activity, which Often occurs before many women know they are pregnant. have the right to sue doctors who perform abortions after this date.
Human rights organizations that defend abortion, as well as medical clinics, asked the Supreme Court on Monday for an emergency order to stop law enforcement. When the court said nothing until midnight, the ban officially went into effect in early September, making it the most restrictive abortion law in the United States, although the Supreme Court may still take action, according to the Wall Street Journal.
US President Joe Biden on Wednesday criticized the law as a blatant violation of constitutional law enshrined in the US Supreme Court’s ruling in Roe v. Wade in 1973, which allowed abortion as long as the fetus could not survive outside the womb.
The issue of abortion strongly divides Americans, and evangelical Christians are among the most vocal opponents of the practice.
The President’s Catholic doctrine opposes abortion, but Biden defends a woman’s right to choose.
Biden said on Wednesday that the law would “reduce women’s access to the health care they need, especially for communities of color and those with low incomes.”
A group of abortion providers and abortion rights advocates said Monday in their emergency petition to the Supreme Court that the law would “immediately and catastrophically reduce access to abortion in Texas.”
The demand adds that the law “will force patients who can raise funds to try to leave the state to have an abortion, and many of them will be delayed until a later pregnancy. The rest of Texans who wish to have an abortion will be forced to remain pregnant against their will or attempt to terminate their pregnancy without medical supervision.
According to the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights, the average distance a Texan woman would have to travel to have an abortion will now drop from 12 to 248 miles, or 20 times more.
More than 53,000 abortions were performed in Texas in 2020, according to data from the Texas Health and Human Services Commission.
In recent years, many Republican-controlled states have sought to enforce laws restricting abortion, forcing many clinics to close.
And clinics have already started implementing the controversial new law, though it threatens their retention, and a number of employees have started to walk away with uncertainty about the future, according to “Time.” .
While the Supreme Court may still make a decision on the new law in the coming days, “even if the ban is ultimately blocked, it will likely have a lasting impact on Texas and provide a roadmap for other conservative states to enact. similar restrictions on abortion. ” According to the newspaper.
Most criticized, state lawmakers have crafted the legal ban in such a way that it is difficult for litigants to challenge it in court, as Texas law uses a different tactic than many other restrictions on it. abortion that Republican legislatures have passed in a number of states in recent years. years and is exactly This has made it difficult for the courts to prevent it, and it also sets the stage for an important new legal strategy for conservative legislatures to follow in the way restrictive abortion laws are written in the world. to come up.
Rather than allowing government officials to enforce abortion bans as they do with most laws, this law states that private citizens can intervene by suing abortion providers and anyone who “assists and encourages A patient to have an abortion after six weeks.
This means that clinics and their staff, as well as family members of patients, or anyone who brings someone to a clinic, provides financial assistance, provides religious or genetic counseling, or even “intends To do any of those actions, Time says. .
She adds that according to the new law, “plaintiffs do not need any connection with the person they suspect of having broken the law, and if they win, the law states that they are entitled to compensation. at least ten thousand dollars plus legal fees. “
When the new law came into effect, the Texas Right to Live group set up a website to seek advice on people who allegedly broke the law and to gather information from those who wish to help the group implement it. The site has been inundated with false information from those who support the right to abortion.
President Biden on Wednesday criticized the law’s mandate for individuals to sue anyone they believe assisted someone else with an abortion, “which may even include members of the family, health workers, front desk staff of a health care clinic or strangers who don’t have a relationship with the individual.
But prominent Harvard constitutional law expert Lawrence Tribe explains: “The Constitution, including Roe v. Wade, only applies to government, not individuals. That’s what makes it really dangerous. It is a kind of civil justice. All the mechanisms at our disposal are bypassed to ensure that the law is applied fairly and that it is not applied in a way that violates the rights of individuals.
Even if the Supreme Court takes action or the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals suspends the law, complications remain. The law includes a provision that suppliers can still be sued for violating the law if the court’s decision is ultimately overturned and the law comes into force, meaning that suppliers can be sued for an action that was technically legal. at the time.
This means that the new law will scare clinics away from performing abortions, even if the Supreme Court temporarily suspends law enforcement, for fear of losing a lot of money later.
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