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Washington – The Supreme Court refused on Wednesday evening to stop a Texas law prohibiting abortions from six weeks of pregnancy, allowing the country’s most restrictive measure to remain in force.
The tribunal ruled 5-4 against relief from abortion providers, who on Monday asked the Supreme Court to suspend the law, which bans most abortions in the state. The High Court did not act until it took effect Wednesday morning, a victory for abortion advocates, and rejected abortion rights advocates’ demand to block the law almost 24 hours later. Chief Justice John Roberts and the three Liberal justices disagreed.
In its opinion, the majority acknowledged that abortion providers “have raised serious questions about the constitutionality of the Texas law at issue”, but said their request to the court presented “complex and novel” procedural issues. that prevented them from discharging their burden.
While the High Court has refused to stop the law as the legal battle continues, the majority said its decision “is not based on any conclusion regarding the constitutionality of Texas law, and does not in any way limit other procedural challenges appropriate to the law of Texas, including in courts of the State of Texas.
The Supreme Court ruling is an important victory for anti-abortion advocates, who look to the High Court’s broad conservative 6-3 majority – with three justices appointed by former President Trump – for nullify Roe v. Wade, the 1973 landmark Supreme Court decision that established women’s right to abortion. The court is set to hear a case this fall involving an abortion measure in Mississippi, and a ruling upholding the law could pave the way for more restrictive abortion laws.
The texan law is the most restrictive abortion measure in the country, as it bans the procedure after six weeks of pregnancy, before many women know they are pregnant. The coalition of abortion clinics and abortion rights advocates who called for the Supreme Court’s intervention argued it challenged High Court precedents that states cannot ban abortions before fetal viability, which usually occurs around 24 weeks.
In the final hours Tuesday before the law came into effect, Whole Woman’s Health, which operates four clinics in Texas and is a complainant in the case, said it had waiting rooms full for patients seeking abortions. But as of Wednesday, clinics would only provide the procedures if ultrasound scans do not show heart activity by law, Amy Hagstrom Miller, CEO of Whole Woman’s Health, told reporters.
In their court request, the groups estimated that at least 85% of women who have abortions in Texas are at least six weeks pregnant and warned that the law prohibits nearly all abortions in the state and will result in the many abortion clinics closed.
“Patients who can muster the resources will be forced to attempt to leave the state to obtain an abortion, and many will be delayed until later in the pregnancy,” they argued. “The remaining Texans who require an abortion will be forced to stay pregnant against their will or attempt to terminate their pregnancy without medical supervision.”
The law, the abortion providers wrote, “would immediately and irreparably destroy access to abortion in Texas,” if allowed to continue. It does not provide an exception for pregnancies resulting from rape or incest.
Texas has joined 12 other states with laws banning early-stage abortions, known as “heartbeat bills,” as they seek to ban the procedures after a fetal heartbeat has been detected for. the first time. Federal judges have prevented these other state laws from coming into force.
But Texas law differs from others in its enforcement regime: under this measure, private citizens are allowed to bring civil suits in state courts against abortion providers or anyone who assists them. women to get an abortion, including someone who brings a woman to a clinic or provides financial assistance.
If an action is successful, the plaintiff is entitled to at least $ 10,000 from the alleged violator of the law.
Abortion rights groups have argued the Texas measure encourages members of the public, rather than state officials, to enforce the ban, and accused lawmakers of designing the mechanism. application to isolate the abortion restriction from federal judicial review.
“[E]Even if the abortion providers and others sued in the SB 8 lawsuits ultimately got the better of them – as they should in any case if only they could mount a fair defense – the threat of unlimited lawsuits against them. them will prevent them from continuing to provide constitutionally protected health care, “they told the Supreme Court.
But Texas officials argued that the claims raised by abortion providers and advocacy groups were “hyperbolic” and said they “have not shown that they would be personally harmed by a bill. which might never be enforced against them by anyone, let alone by government defendants. . “
“If a party faces irreparable harm in this claim, it is the defendants, as well as the state they serve and its people,” they said in a statement. deposit with the Supreme Court.
Abortion advocates have called for intervention by the Supreme Court after a federal appeals court overturned a district court hearing scheduled for Monday. The 5th U.S. Court of Appeals also denied their request to expedite the process or stay enforcement pending appeal.
During their next term, which begins in October, the judges will hear a big legal battle on a Mississippi law banning abortions after 15 weeks. Republican-led states, including Texas, are urging the court, with a conservative 6-3 majority, to overturn Roe.
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