The Supreme Court of the United States determined this Friday that the Texas law that prohibits abortion after six weeks of gestation, even in cases of rape and incest, will remain in force. However, a majority of the judges voted in favor of clinics offering abortion procedures being able to sue the rule in federal court.
A decision that divides opinions. The US Supreme Court left in place the Texas law that prohibits abortion procedures after the sixth week of pregnancy. However, it left the door open for the clinics that provide such services to challenge it in federal courts.
The ruling comes despite providers of abortion procedures and President Joe Biden’s own administration asking the court to block the law.
The determination, with 8 out of 9 votes in favor, establishes that the case can go back to a district court, which would allow to open a new process on the law. However, it restricts the state officials who can be sued. As the court concluded, state court judges, court clerks or state attorney general Ken Paxton cannot be.
A limitation that, according to the liberal judge, Sonia Sotomayor, could make legal challenges difficult and that service providers reopen their doors. Furthermore, the judge went further stating that: “The Court should have put an end to this madness months ago, before SB8 came into effect for the first time. It didn’t do it then, and it fails again today ”.
SB8 states that all abortion procedures after the sixth week of gestation, even if they involve rape or incest, are considered illegal in the state of Texas. A period in which many women do not know they are pregnant.
In addition, it allows individuals, and not state officials, to enforce the law. Opening the door for anyone to be able to file civil lawsuits against entities or servers that help abort a woman, while stipulating a reward of up to $ 10,000 to each plaintiff if he wins the trial.
The Texas Abortion Case: Is It Unconstitutional?
The application of the law by individuals has been criticized by defenders of the reproductive rights of women, who say that its unprecedented mechanism has hindered the legal battle.
Some complaints that have been extended to the fact that the US Supreme Court did not assess whether the Texas legislation violates the constitutional right to abortion, obtained by the emblematic case of Roe v. Wade who decriminalized abortion throughout the country in 1973.
This is stated by Alejandra Cárdenas, director of global legal strategies at the Center for Reproductive Rights in New York for France 24: “It remains quite disappointing that a remedy has not been issued to stop the implementation of this law for infringing the exercise of constitutional rights and that it was done to avoid a judicial review ”.
According to White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki, President Biden expressed his concern “about the consequences that the law may have for women in Texas.”
Beyond the determination of this Friday, the decision of the Supreme Court accounts for the inclination of the court in terms of reproductive rights. Dominated by five conservative judges, including three appointed by former President Donald Trump, it will have to decide another case on abortion rights in the state of Mississippi next summer, which could overturn the landmark Roe v. Ruling. Wade.
The US Supreme Court ruling, conflicting positions
“Today is a black day for abortion patients, doctors and those who provide (abortion services), it is also a black day for anyone who cares about constitutional rights,” said attorney Marc Hearron, representative of the Center for Rights Reproductive, in his speech in the Supreme Court.
A perspective shared by many abortion clinics in the state of Texas. Whole Woman’s Health Alliance President and CEO Amy Hagstrom Miller denounced the decision as “unfair, cruel and inhumane.” At the same time, he declared on his Twitter account that “this decision is not the end and our fight against this law has not ended.”
Today is day 101 of Texans being denied their basic right to essential abortion care. Texans deserve better than this. This ban will have lasting effects on Texan communities for decades to come. We know this decision isn’t the end and our fight against this law is not over.
– Amy Hagstrom Miller (@AmyHM) December 10, 2021
According to the defenders of reproductive rights, the law that came into force on September 1, the date on which the court did not stop the law, has already affected thousands of women in the state, leading them to travel to other places with less restrictive abortion laws.
However, opponents of abortion rights applauded the decision. “We celebrate that the Texas Heartbeat Act will remain in effect, saving the lives of unborn children and protecting mothers while the litigation continues in the lower courts,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List, an anti-abortion group.
A setback for reproductive rights in the US?
The United States is going through a critical moment for reproductive rights, and for several feminist activists the country is backtracking in many of the advanced steps in the matter of abortion. Texas law and the case of the state of Mississippi would account for this.
For Cárdenas, the setback goes hand in hand with an impulse from a minority that “has been doing architectural work for decades to get to the moment we are in now. It has been a very thought-out movement from the point of view of legally eroding that law and build this type of maneuver to try to evade judicial control. “
For now, it remains to be seen what will happen with the judicial review that will emerge from the lawsuits in federal courts allowed by the Supreme Court and with the determination of the court in summer 2022 on the Mississippi case that will establish whether Roe vs. Wade falls close 50 years after its entry into force.
With Reuters, AP, EFE and local media
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