The Department of Justice (DOJ) has filed a lawsuit against the state of Texas to block its new law banning abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, Attorney General Merrick Garland said in an announcement Thursday.
“The Act is clearly unconstitutional under longstanding Supreme Court precedent,” said Attorney General Garland. “The United States has the authority and responsibility to ensure that no state can deprive individuals of their constitutional rights through a legislative scheme specifically designed to prevent the vindication of those rights.”
According to the complaint, Texas enacted SB8 in open defiance of the Constitution by banning abortion at approximately six weeks in nearly all cases, the DOJ said in a statement.
The law violates individuals’ rights to have an abortion procedure prior to viability, which is usually around 24 weeks. Additionally, the law contains no exceptions for pregnancies that result from rape, sexual abuse, incest or for pregnancies involving a fetal defect incompatible with life after birth, the statement read.
“The prohibitions in SB8 apply to anyone who performs or induces a prohibited abortion, anyone who “knowingly” “aids or abets” the performance or inducement of a prohibited abortion, and even anyone who “intends” to perform or aid a prohibited abortion, “DOJ said. “Additionally, instead of relying on the state’s executive branch to enforce the law, as is the norm in Texas and elsewhere, the state has deputized ordinary citizens to serve as bounty hunters, statutorily authorized to recover at least $10,000 per claim from individuals who facilitate a woman’s exercise of her own constitutional rights.”
The complaint challenges that this unprecedented scheme is designed to evade judicial review, the DOJ said in a statement.
Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a request by Texas abortion providers to block the state’s severe new law as legal challenges continue.
The unsigned order from the court said the providers had “raised serious questions regarding the constitutionality of the Texas law at issue,” but added, “their application also presents a complex and novel antecedent procedural questions” that they were unable to resolve.
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