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The U.S. Department of Justice has filed a lawsuit to block a Texas law that prohibits abortion after six weeks of pregnancy, on the grounds that the state violated its constitutional rights under legal precedent.
Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the lawsuit on Thursday, calling the Texas legislation that went into effect last week “clearly unconstitutional.”
Texas law, called SB8, Inspire private citizens Prosecute anyone who provides or assists in an abortion after six weeks of pregnancy.
Garland said the enforcement mechanism is an “obvious” effort designed to evade judicial challenges under federal privacy rights, which allow abortions within 22 weeks of pregnancy.
He said this is an “unprecedented plan” designed to prevent women from exercising their constitutional rights.
“This plan to repeal the U.S. Constitution is a plan that all Americans—regardless of their politics or party—should be afraid of,” Garland said. “If it prevails, it could become a model of action in other fields, other states, and other constitutional rights and judicial precedents.”
Last week, the Supreme Court of the United States, the highest judicial body in the United States, Refuse to block Despite acknowledging “serious issues concerning the constitutionality of Texas law”, SB8 is still in effect.
The ruling stated that it was unclear who was enforcing it, and emphasized that “the federal court has the power to order individuals who enforce the law, not the law itself.”
The decision was passed by 5 votes to 4, and all three judges appointed by former President Donald Trump supported a majority vote.
In the fierce dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor called her colleagues’ ruling “shocking.”
She wrote: “When applying for a ban on a blatantly unconstitutional law aimed at prohibiting women from exercising constitutional rights and evading judicial review, most judges chose to bury their heads in the sand.”
On Tuesday, Garland highlighted a series of legal issues raised by his office in response to SB8, including interference with U.S. agencies “in performing their duties under federal laws related to abortion services.”
He said that Texas legislation violates the supremacy clause of the U.S. Constitution, which stipulates that federal laws are superior to state laws and the Fourteenth Amendment, which ensures equal protection of the Constitution.
“The Justice Department is responsible for defending the U.S. Constitution and upholding the rule of law,” Garland said. “Today, we performed this duty by filing the lawsuit I just described.”
The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas.
Texas responds
Rena Eze, Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s press secretary, said the state was “confident” that the court would uphold what she called the “right to life”.
“The most precious freedom is life itself. Texas passed a law to ensure that the life of every child with a heartbeat is not harmed by abortion,” Eze told Al Jazeera in an email statement .
“Unfortunately, President Biden and his administration are more interested in changing the national narrative of their disastrous Afghan withdrawal and reckless open border policy, rather than protecting innocent unborn people.”
Earlier this week, the Ministry of Justice Commitment execution Existing laws protecting abortion clinics in Texas.
“We will continue to protect those seeking to obtain or provide reproductive health services in accordance with our criminal and civil enforcement of the FACE Act,” Garland said in a statement on Monday, citing a prohibition on attacking facilities that provide reproductive health services Of the law.
Critics of the law point out that it does not grant immunity to rape or incest, and that many women are unaware of pregnancy in the first six weeks.
Julia Kaye, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union’s Reproductive Freedom Project, told Al Jazeera last week that after the law went into effect, there was widespread “disruption and chaos” in the state.
“There are thousands of pregnant Texans sitting at the kitchen table, trying to calculate the numbers and figure out how they might travel hundreds of miles from outside the state to get time-sensitive medical services,” Kay said .
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