WASHINGTON – The United States (US) top court yesterday formally refused to block a Texas law that bans almost all abortions, less than a day after the nation’s most restrictive reproductive rights legislation took effect in the southern state.
The law, known as the “Texas Heartbeat Act”, bans abortion once a foetal heartbeat can be detected, which usually takes place at six weeks – before many women even know they are pregnant.
It makes no exceptions for rape or incest. The only exemption is if there is a danger to the woman’s health.
While similar laws have passed in a dozen Republican-led conservative states, all had been stymied in the courts.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Planned Parenthood, the Centre for Reproductive Rights and other groups filed an emergency request with the Supreme Court on Monday asking it to stop the Texas law from taking effect.
However, late yesterday, the court formally refused to block the legislation.
The court, which was sharply divided with four of its nine justices opposing the decision, did not rule on the constitutionality of the law, but cited “complex and novel procedural issues”.
Liberal justice Sonia Sotomayor called the court’s order “stunning”, saying her colleagues had “opted to bury their head in the sand” over a “flagrantly unconstitutional law engineered to prohibit women from exercising their constitutional rights”.
President Joe Biden vowed to defend abortion rights after the law took effect.
“This extreme Texas law blatantly violates the constitutional right established under Roe v Wade and upheld as precedent for nearly half a century,” Biden said in a reference to the landmark 1973 Supreme Court case that legally enshrined a woman’s right to an abortion.
Scared, confused, angry
Vanessa Rodriguez, senior manager of Planned Parenthood contact centre, Greater Texas, said patients were “scared, confused, angry”.
“Texas politicians are taking away their right to make the decision” about terminating a pregnancy, Rodriguez said.
Amy Hagstrom Miller, chief executive of Whole Woman’s Health, said a clinic in Fort Worth, Texas, had performed abortions until 11.56pm on Tuesday.
“Our waiting room was filled with patients,” she said.
“I woke up feeling deep sadness. I’m numb.”
The ACLU said the impact of the bill will be “immediate and devastating”.
“Access to almost all abortion has just been cut off for millions of people,” the powerful civil rights association said.
According to the ACLU, “approximately 85% to 90%” of the women who obtain an abortion in Texas are at least six weeks into pregnancy.
Anti-abortion activists, however, were jubilant.
“This is a historic moment in the fight to protect women and children from abortion,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the anti-abortion, non-profit Susan B. Anthony List.
The other states that have sought to enact restrictions on abortion in the early stages of pregnancy have been barred from doing so by rulings that cited protections granted in Roe v Wade.
That decision guaranteed the right to an abortion in the US so long as the foetus is not viable outside the womb, which is usually the case until the 22nd to 24th week of pregnancy.
Bounty hunting scheme
Texas’ law is different from those of other states because it allows the public – rather than state officials such as prosecutors or health departments – to bring private civil suits to enforce the ban.
Citizens are encouraged to report to doctors who perform abortions or anyone who helps facilitate the procedure.
The Texas law “creates a bounty hunting scheme that encourages the general public to bring costly and harassing suits against anyone who they believe has violated the ban”, the ACLU said.
“Anyone who successfully sues a health centre worker, an abortion provider, or any person who helps someone access an abortion after six weeks will be rewarded with at least US$10,000 (RM41,620), to be paid by the person sued,” it said.
Nancy Northup, president of the Centre for Reproductive Rights, said the Texas bill will force women to “travel out of state – in the middle of a pandemic – to receive constitutionally guaranteed healthcare”.
“It’s cruel, unconscionable, and unlawful.”
For procedural reasons, this system makes it more difficult for federal courts to intervene, and they have so far refused to hear appeals against the Texas law.
The Supreme Court is also due to hear a case in the coming months involving a Mississippi law that prohibits abortions after the 15th week of pregnancy, except in cases of a medical emergency or a severe foetal abnormality.
It will be the first abortion case considered by the nation’s high court since former president Donald Trump cemented a conservative-leaning 6-3 majority on the nine-member panel.
In an NBC News poll published yesterday, 54% of the Americans surveyed said abortion should be legal in all or most cases, while 42% said it should be illegal. – AFP, September 2, 2021
