In the dispute over the extensive ban on abortion in Texas, the US government takes the country to the Supreme Court. The Justice Department announced on Friday that it would apply to the Supreme Court in Washington to suspend the so-called Heartbeat Act. The legal disputes over the highly controversial law, which has been in force since the beginning of September, are thus entering the next round.
A federal judge last week granted an urgent motion from President Joe Biden’s government and temporarily suspended the abortion law. An appeals court subsequently overturned this decision, a decision that was confirmed again on Thursday evening. This means that the law is back in force in the conservative state in the southern United States.
The strictest abortion law in the United States
The strictest abortion law in the United States prohibits abortions from the point at which the fetus’s heartbeat can be determined, i.e. from about the sixth week of pregnancy. Many women do not even know at this point that they are pregnant. Even in the event of rape or incest, Texan law does not provide for any exceptions.
There is also outrage that it is not the Texan authorities that are supposed to enforce the new regulations, but private individuals. Citizens are encouraged to sue people they suspect of helping women with an abortion after the sixth week. In addition to abortion clinics and their employees, this could also affect relatives or a taxi driver who has brought a pregnant woman to the clinic. Whistleblowers receive $ 10,000 if convicted.
Abortion law is one of the most controversial issues in the United States. In 1973, the Supreme Court ruled “Roe v. Wade »enshrined the fundamental right of women to have an abortion. But women’s rights activists fear that constitutional judges could overturn or curtail this landmark ruling if they deal with a Mississippi state abortion law on December 1.