The U.S. Justice Department filed a lawsuit against the state of Texas over concerns regarding the state’s abortion ban that was passed at the beginning of September.
The new law bans abortions after the six-week mark with no exceptions for rape or incest. Currently, the only exception is when there is a threat to the mother’s life. The law also allows private citizens to receive up to $10,000 for reporting someone who gets or helps facilitate an abortion.
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said in the lawsuit that the abortion ban “is in direct violation of Supreme Court precedent.” The precedent referred to in the lawsuit is Planned Parenthood v. Casey.
Planned Parenthood v. Casey states that “regardless of whether exceptions are made for particular circumstances, a state may not prohibit any woman from making the ultimate decision to terminate her pregnancy before viability.” A fetus is considered viable in the United States once it meets the 24-week mark.
This lawsuit comes after the Supreme Court refused, on a 5-4 ruling, to issue an emergency ruling that would block the enforcement of the new abortion law while leaving the “door open” to rule on further challenges. Twenty-two members of the House Judiciary Committee also submitted a letter to the Justice Department, urging them to issue a lawsuit to block the new law.
In response to the announcement that the Justice Department was suing Texas, Planned Parenthood released a statement that called the ban “unconstitutional.”
“Texas’s S.B.8 is blatantly unconstitutional. It flies in the face of 50 years of precedent and has made abortion virtually inaccessible in the state of Texas,” the statement, from Helene Krasnoff, vice president for public policy litigation & law, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, read.
Winthrop students were mostly in agreement concerning both the abortion ban and the new Justice Department lawsuit.
Biology major Edward Carter said the Justice Department is well within its rights to sue Texas.
“The Justice Department has full right to sue Texas for the abortion ban. This was wrong, and Texas knew what they were doing when passing it. If it isn’t your body, then you shouldn’t be making decisions for others,” Carter said.
Elementary education major Audry Hocott agreed.
“Banning abortions only stops safe abortions, and if you stop safe ones, then you have more women dying,” Hocott said. “And as for the Justice Department suing Texas, that was the right thing to do. You’re taking the right to make a decision away.”
The Justice Department recently asked a federal judge to step in and issue an injunction. The department said that the injunction was “necessary to protect the constitutional rights of women in Texas and the sovereign interest of the United States.” The injunction would stop the law from going into effect while it is challenged in federal court.
The future of this abortion ban remains uncertain, and there will be several legal battles fought over the constitutionality. The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case on a similar abortion ban that was passed in Mississippi. This future case has the potential to overturn the previous precedents of Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey.
