Texas officials on Wednesday defended the state’s strict abortion law that bars the procedure as early as six weeks into pregnancy and urged a federal judge to allow the measure to stand.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) said the court should dismiss the Biden administration’s lawsuit seeking to block the measure that has effectively halted most abortions in the nation’s second-most-populous state.
The Justice Department, the state said in its court filing, does not have the authority to use the federal courts to enforce a constitutional right to abortion. Rather, the Texas law must be challenged in state court through lawsuits brought by private citizens, Paxton contends.
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The court filing comes in advance of a hearing scheduled for Friday before U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman in Austin. It landed just as the Senate Judiciary Committee was examining the impact of the Texas law that allows individuals to take legal action against anyone who helps a woman terminate her pregnancy and the Supreme Court’s refusal to immediately block the law’s enforcement.
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The ban took effect Sept. 1 after the high court allowed the measure to stand while litigation continues. Abortion rights advocates last week asked the justices a second time to review the six-week ban, which they say clearly conflicts with the high court’s rulings that guarantee the right to abortion before viability, usually around 22 to 24 weeks.
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Already, the law is forcing women in Texas to travel long distances to Oklahoma, Kansas, New Mexico and Colorado to terminate their pregnancies. It makes no exceptions for rape, sexual abuse or incest.
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A dozen other states have passed similar bans on abortion after a physician has detected cardiac activity, usually around six weeks into pregnancy. But federal judges prevented those measures from taking effect because of the landmark Roe v. Wade decision protecting the right to an abortion.
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The Texas law is different and specifically crafted to avoid judicial review. State government officials, who are typically targeted in lawsuits to block such measures, are barred from enforcing the ban. Instead, private individuals can file civil lawsuits against anyone who helps a woman obtain an abortion.
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Clinic employees, abortion providers and people who provide women with money or a ride to an abortion clinic can be targeted in the civil actions with the threat of having to pay at least $10,000.
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In Wednesday’s court filing, the Texas attorney general said the injunction sought by the Biden administration to block the “Heartbeat Act” is untenable “because Texas could not institute a heartbeat suit against anyone, much less the federal government.”
The state rejected the Justice Department’s argument that private individuals charged with enforcing the law are essentially “state actors” who can be subject to an injunction from the court.