Stephen Breyer calls Supreme Court decision on Texas abortion law “very, very, very bad”

In an unsigned notice, the majority wrote that although abortion providers had raised “serious questions about the constitutionality of Texas law,” they had not encountered a burden that would allow the court to block it. this time because of “complexity” and “new” procedural issues.

By law, abortion is prohibited when a fetal heartbeat is detected, and there is no exception for rape or incest – although there is an exemption for ” medical emergencies ”.

“Texas law delegates the power to prevent a woman from having an abortion during the first stage of pregnancy to individuals,” Breyer wrote in dissent. “But a woman has the federal constitutional right to obtain an abortion during this first stage.”

He told NPR that the Texas case should not have been decided on an urgent basis, but said: “We will see what happens in this area when we have a substantive issue before us” in the future. .

Yet by letting the law take effect, the Tory majority may have already signaled whether it is on the verge of toppling or at least undermining Roe v. Wade, the ruling which declared the constitutional right of women to terminate a pregnancy.

Announcing the trial at a press conference in Washington, Attorney General Merrick Garland said the “unprecedented” conception of Texas law was “aimed at preventing women from exercising their constitutional rights by thwarting judicial review for so long. as possible”.

“The law is clearly unconstitutional under a long-standing Supreme Court precedent,” Garland said.