The Biden administration had warned: it formally asked the United States Supreme Court to block; Monday, October 18, an extremely restrictive law on abortion in Texas. The latter, which is at the heart of a fierce legal battle, prohibits abortion as soon as the embryo’s heartbeat is detectable, around six weeks of pregnancy, when most women are still unaware of being pregnant. It does not provide for an exception in the event of incest or rape.
To maintain it would amount to “to perpetuate the irreparable harm now being done to thousands of women in Texas who are denied their constitutional rights”, wrote Brian Fletcher, the lawyer who heads the legal representation of the US state.
The jurisprudence of the Supreme Court guarantees the right of women to abort as long as the fetus is not viable, that is to say around 22 weeks of pregnancy. But the text of Texas has a unique device: it confides “exclusively” it is up to citizens to ensure that the measure is respected by encouraging them to file a complaint against organizations or people who help women to have illegal abortions.
The Supreme Court, where the conservative judges have a majority, had already been seized for the first time and had invoked these “new questions of procedure” to refuse, on September 1, to block the entry into force of the law. She had not commented on the substance.
The federal government then entered the legal arena, filing a lawsuit against Texas on its behalf. On October 6, a trial judge ruled in his favor and suspended the law, pending a review on the merits. “This court will not allow this shocking deprivation of such an important right to continue one more day”, wrote federal judge Robert Pitman.
Some clinics then resumed abortions beyond six weeks. But a few days later, a Louisiana-based appeals court known for its conservatism overturned Judge Pitman’s decision. The law thus remains in force for the moment as long as the procedure continues. The Supreme Court is also due to review this fall a Mississippi law that prohibits abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy.
