Texas has passed a blatantly unconstitutional abortion ban, and it became law on 1 September 2021. The law bans abortions from six weeks after conception, claiming completely unscientifically, that a heartbeat can be detected at six weeks, when in fact neither the brain nor the heart has developed in a six-week embryo. The law allows Texans to sue anyone who aids, abets or performs an abortion beyond six weeks of pregnancy. There are no exemptions, even for cases involving rape or incest.
On 30 August, the Center for Reproductive Rights filed an emergency motion in the US Supreme Court (after a motion to an appeal court failed to block the law), asking the Supreme Court to reject the law before clinics were forced to start turning patients away on 1 September.
But true to their own personal biases, and in a violation of women’s legal rights that is beyond credibility, the Supreme Court voted 5-4 to support the law. Calling her colleagues’ decision “stunning”, pro-choice Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote: “Presented with an application to enjoin a flagrantly unconstitutional law engineered to prohibit women from exercising their constitutional rights and evade judicial scrutiny, a majority of justices have opted to bury their heads in the sand. Last night, the court silently acquiesced in a state’s enactment of a law that flouts nearly 50 years of federal precedents.” Justice Elena Kagan, who joined judges Sotomayor and Stephen Breyer in dissent, also called the legislation “patently unconstitutional”.
Chief Justice John Roberts also voted against the majority decision. In his dissenting opinion, he said that although the Court had denied the emergency appeal, its decision did not amount to a ruling that the Texas ban was constitutional. Will this mean that such a ruling may still be required?
SOURCES: Texas Tribune, 30 August 2021 ; Independent UK, 1 September 2021 ; PHOTO